Re: "Believe in God or burn in hell forever"
All three of the Abrahamic religions works this way. Dont you think this notion is a bit infantile?
Yes, frankly. Personally I think its just to scare people into believing what there is no real reason for them to believe.
The presence of God is everywhere. It isn't hard to "feel" God's presence if you are looking for that presence. I'm not sure what you would expect a Christian, Muslim, or Jew to say in reply to this question.
That might be true of 'God' in the widest possible sense, in the form of the Judeo/Christian/Islamic God, or a universal consciousness of some sort, or Tao, or one of a hundred related concepts that spiritual man has come up with over the millennia for what must amount to the same thing.
The association of that sensed presence with the Judeo/Christian/Islamic God is not essential, however; its just associated with that by followers of those religions because its either the only concept they have, or the only one they choose to acknowledge. A 'New Age' type, for example, or a Taoist, would associate that perception with something completely different. The original question, therefore, stands as a good one. Even if the Judeo/Christian/Islamic God exists, why 'eternal d*mnation' just because you don't believe in
that specific concept of God?
God created you, so worship him or u go to hell.
If there
is any logic in that at all, it totally escapes me. WHY? Does God really have an ego so big that anyone who dares not bow down and worship (no matter how good a person they may be) goes to hell? The assumption that it it is self evident that God exists
in the specific form that Jews, Christians and muslims perceive him is simply untrue. Even if you perceive a 'God', it/He doesn't have to fit that model which is more cultural than spiritual.