A loving and merciful God needed a sacrifice in order to be appeased of his anger. And because he loves mankind so much and yet cannot forgive mankind, he decided to send his own son in a human form to be a human sacrifice. Amazing!
Sin needs to be atoned for. It's like paying for what you did, what you buy. God is perfect and cannot abide with imperfection, which includes rape, murder, pedophilia, opposing PAP, lying, stealing, etc.
If God can forgive sin by snapping his fingers or by forgetting about it, then God is very inhumane. God would be sending a message that doing bad is okay, doing bad has no consequence, and people have a license to sin freely. You mistake a loving God as a God who is trapped by the 'loving' phrase and is expected to accept any crime or injustice in the name of 'love'. You would make a great lawyer for trapping people in their words.
Sin has to be atoned for. You can die for your sins in this life and burn in hell, or someone else can do it on your behalf. That's what Jesus did.
I don't buy the nonsense about doing good deeds in other to accumulate merit or to find favour in God's eyes. People who do so often live in fear all their lives, are hypocrites, and usually turn out to be some sort of closet faggot, pedophile or wife abuser.
Anyway, let us just be good people. Not all christians are good people, not all non-christians are bad people. We are what we are, what we choose to be, regardless of religion. Because our human nature is in the driver's seat. The soul is eternal, religion merely imparts to us good morals, food for the soul. And that's good too. Each religion is a different road to the same destination. The after life, the great beyond.
I agree that we all should be good.
What we differ is on why we choose to do good. I do good because I am already secure in God and enjoy his forgiveness and favour. Whether I choose to do good or not, it has no relevance in my standing before God. I am righteous before God whether I choose to do charity or whether I choose to mind my own business. I do good and volunteer at the RC and church as a reflection of how good God has been for me. I'm not more righteous because I volunteer more often.
Other people may be doing good because they hope their good deeds can outweigh their bad deeds. People don't eat certain foods because if they do, all the good they do is wiped out and they are immediately unclean before God. That's how I fire employees who did well in past years but fail to meet my expectations in the most recent year.