Fellow theists: how many of the following statements do you agree with?
Atheists, feel free to respond to all but the last one.
1. Only an a**hole God would punish people for believing material evidence over a holy book, at least on matters of fact.
2. Only an a**hole God would punish people only for guessing wrong about His nature absent clear evidence of same (eg picking the wrong religion)
3. If God is not an a**hole, then people who don't believe in Her, but do their best to be good, loving, and kind will *definitely* not end up in a worse afterlife than people who profess belief in Him, but don't make any real effort to be good
4. If Hell or some equivalent exists, then if God is not an a**hole, people will only be sent there a. for a specific term relevant to their sins, and/or b. if they are somehow irredeemably evil, rather than just having made a few mistakes or whatever.
5. Only an a**hole God would give a large fraction of the population sexual urges that they *can* satisfy in an ethical and responsible manner, then punish them for doing so (eg masturbation, homosexuality)
6. God is not an a**hole.
Oleg:
1. I'm mostly referring to things like evolution, here.
2. God may "reveal himself" to some people, but he apparently doesn't to others.
3. I don't think God is either male or female, but for sentient beings, English kind of makes you pick one or another, so I generally alternate. And my definition of "good, loving, and kind" would be something like "tries to help rather than hurt, whenever possible".
5. I think, at a minimum, if those things are sins, they're itty bitty ones...
Also... as far as what the Bible has to say about homosexuality, and even about masturbation? Ambiguous at *best*. Most of the quotes used to support the idea that homosexuality is wrong are referring, in context, to things like pedaresty, temple prostitutes, and the like, not marriage-like relationships between consenting adults. And even the bit used to support the idea that masturbation is wrong is more about what he didn't do (impregnate his wife) than what he did (****).