The atheists do not like a God that tells them that self-restraint is a good thing. They use the upside-down rationale that a loving, merciful God would never condemn anyone to Hell for eternity. The truth is, of course, that we only walk this earth for a few decades and like to believe that we are smarter than God. A few decades of faith and works and an eternity in bliss sounds like a bargain to me.
“They use the upside-down rationale that a loving, merciful God would never condemn anyone to Hell for eternity.”
But that is no rationale at all; in fact its nonsense because it completely misses the point. As the Fathers have taught, man’s created purpose is to become “like God”, to be fully in His image. This theosis is attained by dying to the self, something which Christ, on account of love, has made possible by trampling down death by His own death. We can love God, die to the self and become like God or we can reject God’s love, live only for the self and fail in our created purpose. As those who have rejected God, we will suffer the torment of God’s love just like a fire. But its all about our response to God’s grace.
“A few decades of faith and works and an eternity in bliss sounds like a bargain to me.”
Indeed it is!
There are feel-good Protestant pastors who teach the same thing; they outright deny hell. It's not atheism, it's distortion of the Gospel. Christ does not teach us to condemn and judge, but to love and forgive as he does, to walk in his steps and imitate him. If you do judge, be merciful.
Christ's message summed up, as Kolo often reminds us, is not "do this or else you will go to hell," which became a household slogan in the West, but rather "do this an you will be with me."
Read Matthew 5,6 and 25. It tells you exactly what Christ teaches and who ends up where and why.