River of....FIIRE!!

Any good parish priest will tell you that the typical Catholic has gotten gobsmackingly lax in the practice of his/her faith. Well "typical" is an exagerration, I guess. But even so, many Catholics have, as I said, become very lazy when it comes to practicing their faith, if they haven't dropped it altogether. Why is this?
That same good parish priest will probably tell you this is because most people over-emphasize the merciful side of God, to the point where His just side is nearly totally ignored. Therefore, people worry less about sinning, Hell, and all that other lovely stuff.
Now back in, say, the Middle Ages, the problem was entirely different. People were morbidly fascinated with Hell, and God was much less of a loving creator to them than He was a merciless judge. And, funnily enough, now that the former misconception has had its spin, the latter may be coming back. At least, perhaps among more consistent Catholics. This isn't a good thing.
I've found a very interesting article, in one of the forum threads linked to above, that explains what is wrong with this picture of God (as merciless tyrant in the skies), and, also, how it has contributed to the popularity of atheism. Quote do I:

I have the suspicion that men today believe in God more than at any other time in human history. Men know the gospel, the teaching of the Church, and God’s creation better than at any other time. They have a profound consciousness of His existence. Their atheism is not a real disbelief. It is rather an aversion toward somebody we know very well but whom we hate with all our heart, exactly as the demons do. We hate God, that is why we ignore Him, overlooking Him as if we did not see Him, and pretending to be atheists. In reality we consider Him our enemy par excellence. Our negation is our vengeance, our atheism is our revenge.
But why do men hate God? They hate Him not only because their deeds are dark while God is light, but also because they consider Him as a menace, as an imminent and eternal danger, as an adversary in court, as an opponent at law, as a public prosecutor and an eternal persecutor. To them, God is no more the almighty physician who came to save them from illness and death, but rather a cruel judge and a vengeful inquisitor.
You see, the devil managed to make men believe that God does not really love us, that He really only loves Himself, and that He accepts us only if we behave as He wants us to behave; that He hates us if we do not behave as He ordered us to behave, and is offended by our insubordination to such a degree that we must pay for it by eternal tortures, created by Him for that purpose.
Who can love a torturer? Even those who try hard to save themselves from the wrath of God cannot really love Him. They love only themselves, trying to escape God’s vengeance and to achieve eternal bliss by managing to please this fearsome and extremely dangerous Creator.
Do you perceive the devil’s slander of our all-loving, all-kind, and absolutely good God? That is why in Greek the devil was given the name of diabolos, "the slanderer."

So, all you hardcore atheists out there, you really do believe in God, even though you may not know it yet. Give me a minute to go off and laugh at the irony of it all.