If "Forced love wouldn't be love at all, in fact it would be cruel and un-Godlike," what's eternal torment?

Question

A fundamentalist just said this meaning that if God didn't give us free will, it would be un-godlike. If he just programmed us to love him it would even be cruel. Here's more:

"Adam and Eve were made to love God. Would that love be genuine if it was forced? If they had no choice? Forced love wouldn't be love at all, in fact it would be cruel and un-Godlike."

So if that would be cruel, what do you call it when a god creates beings capable of experiencing pain knowing that their ultimate destiny is eternal torment?

I would like fundamentalists to answer, but ,of course, everybody's welcome.

And if you're just going to say, "Hell is a choice," "People send themselves to Hell" or as a fundamentalist member named Isaiah once said to me, "Read it and weep, sweetie," then don't bother answering, please. I'm looking for OTHER answers to this pivotal question.

Answer 1

The first observation is that it is clear none of you have experienced forced Love. It is not cruel at all. You experience all the feelings of normal love. The fact that a very small corner of your mind asks how am I loving something so undesirable to me? does not really enter into it.

The fact that is immoral to force it does not deter the Dark Side of things from using it.

However the fundamental question as to why God creates such persons that He knows are destined for pain is answered simply enough. He has to respect the Laws that he created which govern such things. If not then the very structure of Nature itself is negated. This is the Law of Duality.

If there are happy and joyous persons somewhere, then there has to be the opposite also. One cannot exist without the other. God has not choice but to create. You think he does not weep for those who do not make the right choice to avoid their torment?

Answer 2

Actually, there is nowhere in the Bible that states that unbelievers will be "tormented forever". The popular notion of Hell that most Christians believe today comes not from the Bible, but from Greek paganism. Hell does not currently exist, and it will not exist until the end of the Millennium, at which time the wicked of all ages will be resurrected to judgment, and then will be completely consumed by fire raining down from Heaven. They will not be "tortured" forever. They will be permanently destroyed, never to live again. To believe that sinners are tortured forever is to believe that sin is stronger than God! No, God will destroy sin and sinners forever; the Bible tells us that everlasting life is a gift that only the saved received, and only then upon Christ's return. The damned never receive eternal life of any kind, in Hell or otherwise.
Some people like to quote a verse from the Bible that speaks of "unquenchable fire" that awaits the Lost. The same phrase is used to describe the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Are S & G still burning today? Of course not. "unquenchable" means that the fire is so intense that it cannot be put out. But it will go out on its own, once its task is completed. The Bible says that the ashes of the lost will be under the feet of the saved. God will re-create the Earth the way it used to be, and the ashes of the old earth and everything in it will be underneath.
So, God is not cruel. He will "put down" the wicked like a bad dog. He is merciful, but He is also just. I wouldn't want to serve a God who wasn't both just and loving.

Answer 3

a motivational technique