I'm sure that your god is a wonderful god that is very kind and just in all circumstances. If I chose to accept Pascal's gambit, I might envision such a god myself. After all, the emphasis today is on a 'personal' god, so we're really dealing with millions of different deities here, since every person has their own belief of what god is.
I personally would not under any circumstances want to live under a god who cast people into the fires of eternal suffering simply for not believing in him.
Even when I was a Christian I was unable to believe such a thing, and yes, I think it would be awful if true.
What if the Creator, in order to have the creation we have, with spiritual awareness that we have, had to create the universe so that not believing in the Creator and His personal desire to be your God results in your ending up ‘beyond God’s Love and all that such Love causes to be’? It would not be a fault of God that you could end up outside of His Love and all that such entails, it would be your own destiny formed in your selfishness.
That's a distortion, I think. My response to this is that God doesn't cast people into the fires of hell for not believing in him; people are judged according to their behavior and virtue. If you are unworthy, you are not allowed into Heaven. Some people have recognized that they are unworthy to be let into Heaven and they have asked God for forgiveness for their sins. Because Christ volunteered to accept our punishment for us, His Grace grants those people forgiveness and they are admitted into Heaven to spend eternity with God.
On the other hand, those who choose not to ask for forgiveness are not given it and they must stand for judgment upon their own merit.
Even when I was a Christian I was unable to believe such a thing
I truly think, unfortunately, you have been misled.
You said:
Even when I was a Christian I was unable to believe such a thing, and yes, I think it would be awful if true.
You were never a Christian.
Btw, NO ONE talked more about hell than Jesus. If there WEREN’T a hell, He really didn’t need to bother to come here and suffer and die for the sins of mankind.
When you say:
After all, the emphasis today is on a ‘personal’ god, so we’re really dealing with millions of different deities here, since every person has their own belief of what god is
You don’t really believe some of the garbage you are saying, do you? When some people believed in a round earth, and others in a flat earth, did that mean the earth had no shape? God is who He is in His essence, and He is who He is regardless of what people think about him. Furthermore, orthodox Christians are in very substantial agreement as to who God is. As the song goes, “Yes, Jesus loves me, the Bible told me so.”
Put crassly, just because a whole bunch of people might come to the conclusion that you are a complete idiot doesn’t necessarily mean you are one, does it? Obviously, you are what you are regardless of what people might think about you - particularly if you are the Creator of the Universe, and therefore by definition the Ultimate Reality.