If what you have done has in any way increased the amount of happiness, or decreased the amount of misery, in the world, even by a fraction, it has not been wasted. I'm not one of thse French-type existentialists who thinks nobody should ever be anything but miserable!

If any being has appropriated the 'right' to hold me accountable for my doings, then I require two things.

One, that I be judged on my actions and their outcomes, not my beliefs or intentions.

Two, that they accede to me, and to everyone else, the right to hold them accountable for their actions and inactions, set against their claims of omnipotence, omniscience and universal benevolence. Or as Stephen Fry so succintly put it: "Bone cancer in children? What's that all about?"

Grace, salvation and redemption I do not require; I stand by my decisions and actions and accept any and all consequences. This is integrity, anything else is cowardice. Forgiveness can only be granted by the person wronged, you cannot convince me that so powerful a being could be wronged by anything I do, unless they are as petty as they are mighty.

What I require from a God is justice, equity, integrity, honesty, transparency and intervention when necessary. I see none of these in the Biblical God. Zeus and Odin often lacked these qualities, but then neither ever claimed to possess them either, and both left the judgement of souls to others. By comparison, the Biblical 'jack of all trades' deity is a self-contradictory one at best.