Threat of Hell

"If you don't accept Jesus into your heart, you will burn in hell forever."

"You will go to hell if you deny God."

"Infidels! Satan will enjoy torturing your soul!"

Sounds familiar?


The Thought that Counts
I heard the following a couple of times - once, in particular, on the Atheist Experience: "You guys are atheist and hell don't exist for you, why do you care about hell?"

So why do some atheists care about the threats of hellfire from "loving" religious folks? Well, it's the thought that counts.

I don't believe that a hell exist. Neither do I believe that there is a god to send me there. So I don't take offense at the idea that I will be in hell.

If I do take offense, it is actually at the person making the threat. Because he/she thinks that I deserve to go to hell to be tortured for all of eternity. In fact, the threat need not even be made explicit, the very idea that he/she adhere to the religion whose theology states that I deserve to go to hell is disgusting enough.

I'm with Jeff Dee on this:

Fact vs Intention
Some people doesn't seem to get the concept. So I'd thought that I should explain.

Somebody (perhaps even a friend) tells you that you "deserve to be imprisoned in a torture cell on the moon where magical pixies will rip off your toenails and then regrow them over and over again."

The fact is that there isn't a torture cell or magical pixies.

However, it doesn't negate the fact that the person, who made the threat, thinks that you deserve it. In the case of religion, the person agrees with his god that you deserve such a "punishment" for the simple act of disbelief.


So...
How is a supreme deity just to inflict infinite punishment for finite crimes?

How can an omniscient god be considered merciful if he created his creations with the knowledge that he will be sending most of them to hell?

How can such a god even be considered benevolent when he literally created a soul filter?