Infinite Punishment For Sins Commited By Others

The religious never cease to amaze me. The illogical aspects of their faith seem to be infinite.

Jesus ‘n’ Mo ‘n’ the Big Sacrifice:

What a thicket of bad logic! Why, for instance, must sins against an infinite being be given an infinite punishment? If you don’t accept Jesus as your savior, for instance, many Christians think you’ll fry for eternity—infinite punishment. But God and Allah are supposed to be merciful, and why should such a being make us suffer infinitely for doubting Jesus? Isn’t it in their capacity to give us limited punishment?

And why would God allow someone else to die horribly for sins supposedly committed by others? What kind of sense does that make? This is one aspect of Christianity that, although apparently universally accepted by theologians, still puzzles me. Under many forms of Christianity, you can be as horrible a person as you want throughout your life, but if, right before you die, you say you accept Jesus as savior, all is forgiven. You get a pass to Heaven. (This is, of course, the doctrne of “sola fide”: salvation by faith alone.) And that makes no sense, either. But I’m just a poor evolutionary biologist, apparently unable to grasp the nuances of Sophisticated Theology™.

I have often wondered about why the Christian God demands that we suffer for what others have done, especially for what Adam and Eve did.

However, I must confess to never considering why the punishment has to be infinite and why it can't be limited.