so agriculture, architecture, metallurgy and the wheel are all gifts from hell?
Ooooookkkkaaaaaayyyyy...
I mean they all are pretty awful things, but I didn't realize they were SO evil.
I'm not entirely certain that is much of a "choice". According to some versions of Christianity you get a short time to make a choice (~70+ years) and if you make the wrong choice you will spend ETERNITY in torment.
So that works out to about 70/infinity...that's a ratio pretty close to ZERO for choice

unishment.
But is it really a "choice" then? Kind of like a mafia boss saying you can pay him or you can be killed.
That's not what I would call a "choice".
What if I'm ok with a regular life? What if I'm not interested in living forever? What if I just want to be happy in THIS life that I KNOW I have?
Maybe for some of us it isn't egotism. Did you ever consider that? Perhaps some of us cannot force ourselves to worship that which doesn't appear to be there to us.
If God wants worship then why hide from some of us?
If God simply wants to play a game in which he holds all the cards and I am powerless then why not jump straight ahead to the torture NOW?
You see, it is hardly "egotistical" to ignore that which doesn't appear to be there to some of us.