Why is there eternal punishment for finite sin? If so, why are people who could not help their unbelief sent to eternal hell, if God is fair?
To add some context, I became a Christian when I was young, and still am to this day, but I'd like some insight into my biggest gripe about Christianity.
Why would God willingly condemn a soul to eternal torture when he could simply destroy it? The common counterargument to this point is that God is perfectly pure and any amount of sin in the eyes of a perfect being requires a perfect/infinite amount of compensation/punishment. However, would it not be more just simply to destroy the soul? God can do anything; it is definitely in his power.
Additionally, that brings me to my next gripe: if God is perfectly fair, what about all those people who did not have the same chance as a Christian? For example, divorced babies do not believe in Christ, thus all scripture would indicate that they will burn in the lake of fire for all eternity. Objectively speaking that baby had zero chance of ever receiving the gospel; was the baby just created by God to send into the flames?
Now obviously a common point people raise is that the baby had no sin so they will be saved; however the situation can be applied into different contexts as well. What about people living in China in 300 A.D who had zero missionaries preach the gospel? They clearly committed sins in their lifetime and did not believe in the gospel; did God create millions upon millions of human beings with zero chance of saving, destined to a life of pain? This also applies to the modern day as well; there are millions of people out there that, regardless of Christianities effort to evangelise, do not know much or anything about the gospel. They may have heard of the name of Jesus and that Christianity is a big religion but largely there will be many people out there who barely knows anything about the gospel. To say that these people had equal opportunity as a child growing up in a Christian family is absurd; thus is it fair if these people are sent to hell when they did not get much of a choice, when there are indeed people out there who will willingly reject the bible after consideration?
I wouldn't have a problem with all this saving business if there wasn't an eternal punishment for it. Thats sort of why I am of the opinion that there is no eternal punishment but rather eternal death which would allow God to be perfectly just.
But that's just my opinion and I'm not here to preach my agenda, I'm here to listen to your arguments.