"]This is probably the worst thing that religion does - it threatens children that if they don’t believe they’re going to be tortured forever in hell and if they do believe it they’ll be eternally blissful in heavenThis is one of many reasons why we need to tell people about EU…
The concept of ECT was the reason I was an atheist for a majority of my life. Sure, there were other issues that I had to resolve before becoming a Christian, like my ignorance of what the Bible really said, or reconciling my scientific background/knowledge with the scriptures, but really it always came back to ECT. I honestly felt that in order to convert to Christianity I would have to become a less caring person, because I’d have to somehow be able to accept the idea that ECT was justifiable. If it were not for Robin’s book, I would still be an atheist/agnostic right now. And if there’s one thing I’m certain of, it’s that I’m not the only one. The doctrine of ECT is robbing many atheists of the opportunity to come to know Jesus Christ.
It really frustrates me that Christians (myself included) have failed to articulate what ECT actually means for many Christians (i.e. not that God will actively and sadistically roast you because a) he didn’t pick you or b) you ticked the wrong box on an arbitrary, gnostic ballot) 
I know it’s boring for me to always harp on about it, but I strongly suspect that if atheists and agnostics actually explored what RC, EO and countless Protestants actually believe concerning hell (as opposed to the diminished popular images I mentioned earlier), they would have their knickers in less of a knot.
Though your point is well taken, I don’t believe that kind of clarification would really help much. I find that many Christians do not understand atheists at all. Atheists don’t hate God and they haven’t consciously chosen to disobey him. They simply don’t believe he exists. When I was an atheist there was a question I always asked myself:
“If I were to die today and found myself standing before God, finally learning that he does exist, I would chose immediately to follow him, but would he reject me because I was too late, having not found him before I died?”
Most Christians I know would say yes, I was too late, and Hell is the price I’ll pay because I’m a sinner who died in my sins and didn’t accept Jesus’s offer of salvation. Only from my perspective I didn’t reject him… I simply never learned or saw enough to truly know that he exists. Then I’d wonder why God wouldn’t want me even though I chose to follow him the first moment I learned that he existed. Why does the timing matter? Then I’d ask myself why God wouldn’t just let me know he exists so that I could make the right choice. Why instead would he leave my fate in the hands of evangelists who don’t understand me and who may not ever be able to convince me that he exists?
I had those kinds of thoughts regularly, and it never seemed fair to me… as if I had been set up to fail.
Sorry WAAB but I fail to see any good in ECT whichever way I look at it 
]if God sends us there, that seems problematic in regards to His love (I’m sure He wouldn’t want to be sent there, so why send us there - do unto others as you’d have them do to you), fatherhood (I wouldn’t leave my children in ECT), rules out the possibility of reconciliation, peace, receiving the praise He deserves, & an end of suffering & anger/]
]if I send myself there, that seems problematic in regards to His love (especially if you believe He has foreknowledge), fatherhood (again I wouldn’t leave my children in ECT), sovereignty (Is human will stronger than His? Is He really not wise, attractive, powerful, resourceful enough to woo us back?)/]
jtobiska, sure. I understand that atheists do not believe in a God and that a perfectly rationalized eschatology will not convince anyone (trust me, I reckon we all should be less preoccupied with fanciful eschatologies! That’s not a dig at universalism at all by the way). I was merely saying that a better rationalized eschatology would “have their knickers in less of a knot”. So basically, I think atheists should quit using fringe, simplistic views of hell to define their assumptions about the Christian God (though I’m not sure David Nicholls is actually saying that).
Fair enough 
I sometimes hang out on Yahoo Answers in the religion section (or art), and while there’s a lot of garbage, you sometimes see sincere questions. And I’d have to agree that the number one thing I see atheists complain about is the idea that we, or our god have condemned them to ect because of something they don’t feel they can believe, and why doesn’t God just show Himself so that they could believe, etc.
The second is like it – which is why a god who is love would threaten people who choose not to follow him with ect. That doesn’t seem loving to them. Odd folk, those atheists. 
Occasionally someone will try to console them with annihilation (which they actually believe in any case), but this somehow fails to mollify them. Imagine that. 
I try to set them straight, but I’m not sure it does anything for them either. But I at least am comforted that these kids (well, most of them are kids) aren’t really going to burn forever, and that they’ll only suffer what they NEED to suffer in order to enable them to also inherit eternal life.
Blessings, Cindy