For possibly the first time, I have to agree with cc here.
Once you hypothecate a creator of the universe, he would be pretty close to omnipotent.
You Sir, are a gentleman and a scholar, with a degree of open-mindedness that the rest of us can but gawk at in amazement. (For the avoidance of doubt I am not being patronising or sarcastic but admiring; because the acceptance of another's point of view in a forum like this is like a transit of Venus, such a rare event that it merits special attention)
... but that still doesn't mean that believing in God or a god, would merit eternal damnation.
I kind of agree, but partly because the word "Merit" is so loaded with connotations of "deserved". I'd prefer to replace the word "merit" in your sentence with "result in". I contend that if there is even the slightest chance that believing in the creator (worshipping It) could result in the PUNISHMENT then Pascal's wager is bust. It doesn't matter how small the chance is, once multiplied by -infinity it still comes to -infinity.
"I have not indicated that the hypothetical creator is necessarily omnipotent; omnipotence is merely one possibility."
Now, think about this. If the creator created the Universe, even if he weren't "omnipotent," he would appear to be so. As a matter of fact, within his own Creation he would have to be so close to omnipotence, for his not being omnipotent to matter.
I kind of buy what you are saying here too. But I'd say that there is a long distance between what we (poor feeble creatures that we are) would perceive as effective omnipotence in our universe and the perfect ideal of true omnipotence. For example does the "limited" omnipotence (haha, that'd have my old english teacher foaming at the mouth) required to be the Creator automatically imply the level of omniprescence and omniscience that would make Him detect and rebuke the Devil/Cleaner? I don't think so, you may believe otherwise.