He doesn't. You just die forever if you reject him. It's your choice at the end of the day.
Actually there's a lot of spirited debate as to what the fate of those condemned to Hell are. Some say they're punished until the end of time at which point their spirits are destroyed forever, others say they're punished for all eternity with no rest in oblivion, and others say that the punishment of Hell is only temporary and some time in the long distant future, all souls
will be saved. Some even go as far as to say that even
demons will return to the light!
Eternal punishment is the most popular one because it's easy to keep the masses in line when you tell them they're going to be hurting forever, but it does somewhat contradict "whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life". People also contest that an eternal, otherworldly punishment for temporal, earthly sin is lopsided, and a loving, just God—though he shows no compunction with meting out punishment—would ever subject an immortal soul to the senseless, unending cruelty of Hell. Thus, these people think that Hell works like Naraka, in that it's a place where your earthly sins are atoned for through punishment, and when the time comes, your soul will be reawakened to God and return to His presence.
Note that these are not theories invented by atheists in the past century, these were posited by Christians over a millennium ago.
So either God is a gay communist that gives everyone what they want and gives them milk and cookies or he is not good?
Have you ever heard of "no pain no gain"? Suffering helps people develop. If your parents never allowed you to experience any degree of suffering you wouldn't have grown at all. You'd be stunted. Is that what a loving parent does to their child?
But God writes the rules of reality, and he isn't a mere mundane father. He could have very well made it so that mankind does not require suffering alone to grow. And in fact, there are avenues of growth other than being put through the CBTalizer 2000. The understanding that suffering prompts growth is a purely human cope (in the literal sense) for the existence of suffering.
Who defines what is good and moral? Certainly not the creator of the universe, but an infinitely inferior creature! That makes sense!
If the trajectory of western ethics is to be believed, it was Plato who laid down what is good and moral, seeing as Christianity is essentially Platonism disguised as Judaism. So really, the moral arbiters of mankind are the Greeks.
How is pain or suffering evil?
If pain and suffering is not evil, why is the place of ultimate evil associated with pain and suffering? Why is the place of ultimate good understood to be bereft of pain and suffering?
You say its not rational to believe in God (or at least a God that is not "all benevolent" by your standards), but you do realize that thousands of people smarter than you and I believed in God in the past and continue to in the present? Are you claiming to be more rational than people like, say, Isaac Newton?
Why not? Is Isaac Newton more rational than me because he existed in the past? Entirely rational and well-regarded people believed that the sun revolved around the Earth. They believed that sickness was spread by bad smells or unbalanced humors. Many of these highly rational people couldn't and still
can't agree on the exact form of their belief in a higher power.
Rational people take a lot of things for granted that are later shown (or at least believed) to be untrue.
Claims about good and evil, morality, need to be grounded in something greater than subjective human opinions, otherwise they are just that.
Not wholly true. We have drives within us that compel us to acts of kindness. If you see a child crying alone, would you really pause to ask yourself "what would Jesus do?" or "how does this balance my Karma?" or "would my Izzat go up?" The only person who would not be compelled to help a crying child would be someone completely cut off from their humanity. It's these very same drives that allow us to be manipulated.
Unrelated, but stay off the internet, OP.
