Why would a just God punish me for all eternity for my sincere belief that He doesn't exist? What's up with that?
First, I apologize for my being
judgemental in my previous posts as I misread your intent. You ask some excellent questions.
I don't think the God punishes you. After all, we were supposed to live in heaven but had free will. What happened was Adam and Eve broke the one law that God set for him. That brought
separation from God all the death and troubles in this world. In fact, this is the evidence of God from Earth, the universe, and everything in it. It will all die. We will all die eventually. I mean we don't have life anywhere else. You can think the universe will continue expanding, but is there a point if there is no life elsewhere?
This time, all one has to do is have faith that Jesus Christ is our Savior and things change. It means that we can have
eternal life and return to heaven. This sounds more like a reward for you are with your creator again. As for being separated from God for all eternity, then one's perfect spiritual self is destroyed in the Lake of Fire and continues to get what you get in this life with death in it.
What do you think? I can't rationalize
faith to you. You will believe what you want such as no God/gods.
So, you're holding up the Bible as the ultimate credential? Based on what? Hundreds of years of tradition? That doesn't make any of it true. The Bible ought to be subject to the same examination as any other book, and as such, some of it may be history, and some of it may be legend.
Sure, the Bible is everything to one who believes in God since the words are his. I can explain how science backs up the Bible, but I don't think that is what you're asking.
The short answer: No. We're born, we live, we die. That's it. There is no intelligence controlling the universe.
The short answer should be we're born, we live, and we don't die,
i.e. separation from God, if there wasn't sin brought into the world.
You have faith that there in no intelligence controlling the universe, but that's not what beauty and complexity shows.