Would there be a reason to love god if there was no hell?

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Is there any conflict in the assumption that someone can be terrified into loving someone or something? What form of love might that be and what kind of entity would enforce it?

Obviously God can't force you to love Him or make you do anything against your will. That would violate our Free Will. God desires a personal relationship with us, but on our terms instead of His. It would have no meaning if you were coerced into loving someone. It wouldn't be real love.

I don't think the phrase "fear of God" means being utterly terrifed of God. If you love someone with all your being, the preciousness of that relationship will make you afraid of losing it, jeopardizing it. Wow. I started this post not knowing what "fear of God" meant, and I think He just told me. I mean like right this minute the idea came to me!

It still looks like God is trying to terrify you with Hell or losing his love. In good human relationships love is given unconditionally. I love my children and would do anything to help them and make them happy. I certainly would not try to terrify them to make them behave but would try to understand why they behave the way they do and try to show them that their choice i not for their best interest. If I tried to control them by removing my love or torturing them I would consider myself a monster.

Human love isn't always unconditional. I hear what you're saying, but love isn't unconditionally by default. How you feel about your Maker is between you & your Maker; it's none of my business.

I haven't read the entire thread, so please pardon me if I'm repeating what someone else said.

I sort of view hell as the absence of God. Since I believe that God=anything good (very simplistic definintion, my beleif is a little more complx, but for the purposes of this thread, this should work), hell would be a pretty aweful place. I don't really view it as a torture chamber.

And I'm a Christian by the way and not for reasons of "fire insurance."

I never claimed all human love is unconditional, but a good human relationship involves unconditional love, at least for humans. I do not claim that God would behave as a human but a God that does not rise above withdrawing love for his creatures for an offense of his principles does not appeal to me. You must excuse me for being merely human.

I agree with you, Viola. The separation from God has classically been viewed as "hell." We have no clear-cut description of what Hell is, and this because Hell is a place of your own making. The person creates his or her own hell from the contents of their souls, and it's never the same for any two people.

Like Heaven, I believe Hell is completely intimate, completely personal. My Heaven could be another person's Hell. My Hell could be another person's Paradise. Perceptual realms ... perceptual realities

Not hinging on any notion of "afterlife" or "life-after-death" state. No, much more fiendish to experience Hell during this life. And so sweet to experiece Heaven in this body.

We don't really have a clue about heaven or hell, apart from what we're told.

It seems, then, that a separation from God defines Hell. And the punishment is experienced by someone still alive and bereft of God. Thereby, it seems that Hell is an internal experience by someone who is horrified at the sense of not having a God. As someone who has never experienced a belief in God nor ever felt the need for this belief nor ever seen any convincing evidence for the necessity for a God it seems I am immune from Hell nor do I feel the slightest discomfort in the matter. God, as you describe it has the appearance of an addiction like cigarettes or something more powerful. I do not smoke either.

You believe you're immune from Hell? So you've never suffered, never experienced hatred or fear or misery?

Are you immune from Heaven as well? If you are, hatred, fear and misery must be all you are able to experiece.

If God is nothing more than an addiction, how would characterize the Devil? Relief from that addiction? Because we have the orginal sin of Adam & Eve, the Devil owns real estate inside all our minds and hearts. Jesus died on the cross so God could own real estate there, as well.

Of course I have experienced all the emotions that my nervous system offers. But I do not make that equivalent to punishment. When a reckless motorist rendered my son quadriplegic I did not waste my time or emotions either condemning an imaginary being for the tragedy nor plagued myself with hatred for the idiot who injured my three year old. There were real problems to be solved in seeing to keeping my son alive and properly cared for. There are thousands if not millions of people in the world then and now who have problems as bad or worse and I used my resources to give my son whatever help was available. Anyone who has encountered Murphy' laws knows how perverse and difficult life can be and the way to stay alive and help those you love is to use your brains and training to do your best to do so. Characterizing that as either Heaven or Hell is a useless and frustrating exercise.

Whatever works for you.

I don't think you are looking for the answers to the above queries. I think you're just trying to cause your own brand of trouble.

What puzzles me is why anything else could work for anybody. I am quite a bit older than you and have acquired my understanding of life over many experiences. There are still many experiences to come and I do not relish facing all of them but I know that it all boils down to using whatever capabilities endowed by time and experience and basic good sense to prolong my time. Of course, in the end we all lose, but I do not kid myself about second chances. The piercing sense of how limited in time my life is gives even the pain and sadness a dimension that I relish and each day with its snow or rain or sunshine, with its unexpected simple delights in a fresh baked piece of bread or an apple pie or its growing horror of humanity inexorably destroying the beauty of tigers and whales and penguins and even honeybees makes me grateful for the time I have had, that I have, and that I still might have donated by inheritance and luck. I would not have missed it for anything.

And I think you are afraid of the right answers.

That puzzled feeling will follow you to the grave, I think. If all this is nothing you care to understand, don't try to understand. Just leave it alone.

BTW a right answer is whatever you want it to be. Rightness has no objectivity.

If you are troubled by my questions then that is very good indeed. It means you will start to wonder what the answers might be.
Why do you presume I do not want to understand? I am troubled that the marvelous analytical capabilities humans have are not properly utilized to dispel wishful thinking and get them prepared for the immense hard work that will soon be necessary to either save the world from a vengeful environment or somehow survive the changes humanity has evoked on the planet.