“Unfortunately, it’s much easier to organize people around fear and hatred than around love. Most people who want to hold onto power view God as vindictive and punitive. Powerful people actually prefer this worldview, because it validates their use of intimidation. Both Catholicism and Protestantism have used the threat of eternal hellfire, which “works” because it appeals to the lowest level of consciousness, where we all start.
 
“Much of Christian history has manifested a very different god than the one Jesus revealed and represented. Jesus tells us to love our enemies, but this “cultural” god sure doesn’t. Jesus tells us to forgive “seventy times seven” times, but this god doesn’t. Instead, this god burns people for all eternity. Many of us were raised to believe this, but we usually had to repress this bad theology because it’s literally unthinkable. Most humans are more loving and forgiving than such a god. We’ve developed an unworkable and toxic image of God that a healthy person would never trust. The mystical, transformative journey cannot take place until that image is undone. Why would you want to spend even an hour in silence, solitude, or intimacy with such a god? (Adapted from Richard Rohr, “Today Is a Time for Mercy,” December 10, 2015, https://cac.org/richard-rohr-on-mercy-mp3)
 
This one reason why I am an Epicurean. Epicureanism is very simple and straightforward.  There are no priests, no supernaturalism, nobody threatening you or making you fearful of death.  It is an individualistic belief (just look at the number of websites on the subject) based on moderation, friendship, tolerance, respect for others and simply getting along with others with the minimum of stress. It is rational, kind and sympathetic.