The torturous way theists must rationalize death.

[Freelancer]

7. It's all projections of what we know, only magnified, IMO

It's human nature to envision everything beyond the horizon as similar to what we know, only much bigger. Fathers, elders, or kings once held people's lives in their hands and, depending on their nature, might deal with disobedience with great cruelty (still that way in places). Take that, project it onto the universe, and you have gods.

There was a period when lowly travelers who found themselves at the gates of a foreign city had to make a case for their admittance, or prove a relationship in order to enter. Failure to make the cut meant languishing in the wilderness, or being set-upon as an enemy. Expand and project, and you have the pearly gates and hell.

Now the projection we have is a kind of ultimate surveillance, where God's cameras are recording everything we do, think and feel for some kind of final job review. It's just some messed-up bullshit spun out by the hippocampus.

Welcome to Earth, kid. Here's your shovel.