If these are the facts of our nature, I have trouble seeing how a benevolent creator could consign any of the flawed creatures he brought into being to an eternity of roasting in flames.  Why would such punishment be deserved, if it’s based simply on a person’s not having risen above the lower elements that his creator saw fit to include in him?

Also, how could he in fairness punish a person for failing to follow his rules, when there are so many of them out there claiming to be his—and often contradicting one another?

It’s even harder for me to accept the widespread belief of earlier periods in the Christian era that the vast majority of people in the world would end up in eternal misery for not having figured out what was actually expected of them in rising above certain aspects of their basic nature.

However, this doesn’t mean I reject the possibility of an afterlife.  I’m just more inclined to view it as a transition from one form of being into another.

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