"Right now the Holy Spirit is here keeping evil at bay. Despite this fact, we've had our Neros and Stalins and Hitlers and Pol Pots, etc. People who have done unimaginable evil things to others."
In which case, I'd say your Holy Spirit hasn't done just a whole heck of a lot of good, has he? About as much as if he didn't exist at all, in fact. Ah, I'll bet there's a correlation there.
"Now picture Hell without the fire and brimstone: nice houses, quiet streets, beautiful gardens, lakes, and ponds. Plenty of fishing, hunting, hiking, whatever your heart's desire."
Sounds rather like suburbia with a side of good country living -- on, of all things, Earth. Sure you don't just have a terribly limited imagination?
"And best of all: no God - no Bible - not a Christian in sight! In fact, it's an Atheist's Paradise; with survival-of-the-fittest and natural selection a daily occurrence."
Earth, only more pleasant. Sounds better by the minute -- more like heaven than anything else I've heard. Where do I sign?
"Now all of a sudden, Nero shows up, then Stalin, then Hitler, then Pol Pot. Can you even fathom how those men would turn your little paradise into a torture chamber for all eternity?
Well, that's how Earth happens to be Earth and not the paradisical version of it you described. So it seems to me that you are telling me that Earth is that place of eternal torture we're supposed to avoid. How, if we're already there and have been all along? That's quite a rotten prank to play on humanity, isn't it?
"No --- God is not going to let that happen. You see, He made provisions for that --- even in Hell; because Nero and Stalin and Hitler and Pol Pot are going to be too busy with their own problems to be thinking of anyone else."
So, they'll be punished by the fire and brimstone, but ONLY the evil people will be? That works for me. Oh, but that's NOT how it really is, at least not in your minds, is it? Atheists and Buddhists and anyone else who isn't part of your own exclusive club gets a house in this flaming, sulfurous suburbia, right alongside of Nero and Pol Pot and all the rest, right? So you're right back at square one and haven't made a lick of sense in this whole analogy.
"Me --- I'm taking the cool way out --- through Jesus Christ."
Ah, yes, the "Get Out of Jail Free" card. Well, bub, by your own rules, Hitler was a Christian, so he won't be down there choking on sulfur fumes, but up among you and yours with the harps and clouds. The same goes for many rapacious rulers, not to mention lesser mortals such as various killers -- many Mafiosi and other gangsters, especially those from the Prohibition era and soon after, were/are actually quite pious and devout Catholics. How well does it sit with you to have such company in heaven?
~David D.G.
