If I was a god I would rather sentence someone to eternal hellfire for believing in me for possible personal gain than someone who wasn't scared into believing I existed, choosing to be a good Christian because of possible reward in the afterlife is fucking pathetic, it also misses the point that there are a shitload of religions that promise you reward in heaven if you follow them, and punishment if you don't, spreading it out even thinner, in the end it's just pathetic.
It's a good starting point because many people just say "I don't see proof for God, so no point believing" and they just stop there. That makes the least sense of all. They aren't thinking beyond what is right in front of their face (almost literally), let alone what has happened in the past, or what may happen in the future, or what may happen after they die. What are the possibilities after death? Do we have a finite percentage of probabilities? What are those based on? Does that affect how I live my life now? Should it? What makes the most sense?
This entire post makes you sound like someone any selfrespecting deity would punish, religion/lack thereof should be a search for truth, not a search for reward. Abrahamic religions, specifically the Christianities, are fucking pathetic, they aren't based on trying to find truth, they aren't based on trying to do what you think is right, they're all about not searching for knowledge (hell the Adam and Eve story is basically "God wants you to be stupid"), not searching for truth, and doing what some book some shitheads wrote over a millennium ago tells them to? And why? Because it's right? Nope, because they might be rewarded. You disgust me. I would rather burn in eternal hellfire than worship something I didn't really believe in because it MIGHT be possible, and thus I MIGHT be rewarded.
BUT ANYHOW
Mork the goat god wants your money to strengthen his church, give me all your looms and gold and you'll gain eternal life in the afterlife, or whatever.