A person can be an overall genuine person in the eyes of god without accepting a religion.

A unbeliever cannot be seen as a genuine person in the eyes of God because God does not have eyes, because God isn't real. Many religions damn unbelievers in order to establish a Pascal's wager sort of situation in order to apply the stick and carrot to compel belief via arguments of force because there are no arguments of reason or evidence to compel a person. If you ask believers or check in the Bible it is very clear: Jesus says the only way to the father is through Him. Or in the Koran: God will damn to hell those who make partners unto him. Many Christians contend that though, Gandhi was an overall good individual he wasn't a Christian and thus is burning in hell. The Nazis burned Anne Frank because she was Jewish; they are evil. God burns Anne Frank forever because she was Jewish; he is good? The doctrines are pretty clear, if you don't believe, you go to hell. It has nothing to do with being a fair system or a system that credits people with being good. In fact, Christianity tells people they are evil and there's no way any of them could possibly get to Heaven without the blood of the innocent. Christians are told that they should rejoice in human sacrifice and should accept that their souls are saved by the crucifixion of Christ. However, if given half a chance, any good person would try to stop such a barbaric thing. Whereas any Christian would for the sake of his soul be compelled to commit such a murder themselves (or would you risk your soul in order to save Jesus?). I for one believe that only without religion can a person live a fulfilling life for himself and still respect those around him. Most religions tell people that their neighbors are sin filled evil-doers needing of your bronze aged ramblings in order to be good. While doing nothing wrong and being good and decent people. It isn't that the irreligious can still manage goodness, rather it's that religious practitioners are only moral in spite of the Bible. You cannot be a good person unless you genuflect to bronzed aged hates speech. Sure, I'm one of the nicest people you'll meet. I don't drink, do drugs, sleep around, hurt people, think badly of them or talk about ill of them, I donate blood on a regular basis and am a firm believer in the goodness of humanity. However, I also know my religions and know that there isn't any major faith supposing I won't burn forever because I'm an atheist. The gods of various religions in this respect are evil and damn you to hell for not accepting their absolute truth on no evidence. On the surface the claim seems simple. If there is a God he should let good people into heaven. So since you're a good person, even though you're an atheist, you should still go to heaven; this is wrong. It wrongly assumes that the supposed God running the universe is a fair and good God. Every faith seems to have the same general theme in this respect, if you don't believe this specific set of doctrines, you're going to burn. Why have the doctrine of hell otherwise? Regardless of what bad things you do in this life, an infinite punishment is never called for, and certainly not by a good or loving God. You're wrong across the board with your premise, morality has nothing to do with religion. Morality and religion have as much to do with each other as eye sight has to do with eye color. Religion is not a good thing, and while we'd certainly have a different situation today; that situation would be better than what we have now. I have not seen faith move a mountain, but I've seen what it can do to skyscrapers. Religions do not make people good or moral. Religions make good and moral people do evil and immoral things. People are good. Religions, in order to win converts, make broad immoral claims like everybody burns forever for failing to kowtow to tyranny for no good reason. Religions say very clearly that good people, who accept that there is no good reason to believe in that religion because there isn't a shred of evidence to suggest that that religion is true, are going to burn forever in pain and torment. You don't need to say anything bad about religion, the things speak for themselves. Gandhi burns in hell, while Torquemada enjoys paradise; any religion that allows such claims to be made with a straight face should not be given the benefit of any doubt, but rather condemned. In short, you are wrong. Because you are good and moral person, does not imply for a moment that you are a good and moral person in the eyes of religion. No. You are a vile heathen less good than many mass murderers who "find God". You are evil and worthy of being burned forever for coming to reasonable conclusions from reasonable examinations of the evidence. Sucking up to this nonsense, is not worth your time or effort, anything that suggests the things that religions suggests is evil. So in the end, in the eyes of this nonsense your deeds amount to a hill of beans. Religion judges goodness only by the degree to which you genuflect to it's nonsensical teachings. Let me clear up that I am speaking ill of religion, because it should be spoken ill of - and if you follow it, shame on you. I'm am curious to see what other people think.