Ah, okay then.
How long is your heaven supposed to last, FriarTed? People just singing God’s praises all day long, looking for unbelievers to convert and such… wouldn’t that get dull after a while? I’m not sure how you could get any number of humans to do this for any length of time without some serious mind-control.
This was in my OP- pay attention this time, bolding & italics added…
enjoy Eternal Life in harmony with & worship of God, with an eternity of learning about what has happened & exploring/developing the Universe ahead of you
An eternity? Wouldn’t that get kinda dull after a few thousand years? I means, there are only so many different things one can learn before it all starts to blur together, wot?
I’d choose to fade away. There is no virtue in living forever. Eventually, I would get sick of it. Eternity is such a long time that I wouldn’t believe god himself if he said he had to power to make me happy for all eternity. Hell, just in the past few thousand years, he apparently had to kick out his favorite and most powerful angel for rebellion. You’d think that after the millionth rebellion I would start thinking that Heaven’s like a ghetto neighborhood that’s constantly under assault.
And god doesn’t just have to win every time, but he has to win FOREVER. It only takes one loss and the whole thing goes to shit.
So no, everlasting life is terrible. I choose to end my existence permanently
So how much time am I allowed to spend ignoring God and blowing off my prostelitization-to-the-evil-rebels duties, so that I can get around to “developing” the universe? (Learning and exploring would be completely finished in a millenia or two and thus are transient activities not worth mentioning.)
Because seriously, this harmony thing sounds like it would get old real fast, and the requirement to engage in it would be an impediment to spending time on more productive pursuits, like writing a new book or leveling up a new D&D character or ruling roughshod over a planet of your terrified creations. Which is to say, the things that I get to do all the time if I take the Earth 2.0 option (after enduring the pontlessly punitive punisment period for an “adequate time”, anyway). I’m aware that you’ve tried to nerf Earth 2.0 somewhat to make Heaven 1.0 seem better, but obviously a requirement to spend one day in seven (or is it more?) sitting on your butts singing the same old hossanas has a nerfing effect of its own.
Eternity isn’t a long time—it isn’t a time at all.
That’s profound in its utter uselessness.
So, FriarTed, how about this one. You die and meet Satan. He convinces you that all the evil things he has done (which are again?) were for the good of mankind. If you admit he isn’t such a bad guy after all, you get to live in hell (a Shavian hell) with all sorts of perks of your choosing, and can leave when you wish. You don’t have to worship him, since, as he says, only power hungry freaks need praise all the time. If you don’t, it is oblivion with no hope of rebirth or eternal life in the pits. Which do you choose?
As for me, I won’t be satisfied with how all God’s torture helped in the long run - I’d need to know why God couldn’t have accomplished this without killing little babies. If an omnipotent being can’t accomplish his goals without minimizing pain, he’s a putz. If there was a god, I’d expect he’d actually condemn anyone believing he would cause so much pain as someone more interested in power than good. Perhaps the Bible is a test of blind belief vs moral belief.
That would be the coolest irony of all! 
Can’t answer this without asking the same question I asked Curtis:
Anyone want to try to explain to me the big shift in attitude on the part of God from one of retribution in the OT to one of forgiveness in the NT?
Did God in fact realize that he was being an asshole and decide to change? Did he realize that wantonly killing people wasn’t winning him enough followers?
What is it? Why the dichotomy?
Keep in mind that even up until the Enlightenment churches still focused quite a bit on the brimstone and hellfire as a way to scare people into worship. It wasn’t that God changed, it’s been his followers. And it’s, I believe, a relatively recent change.
But Lewis Black had the same question. His thought? Having a kid calmed him down.