Not only does Ian hit the nail on the head with his previous post, no-one will experience eternal torment for holding a "particular philosophical position". All humanity has a problem that separates them from God, namely our sinful condition and it is this that sends us all to hell unless we are in Christ:
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23)
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)
The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. (1 Peter 3:9, emphasis added)
This is hardly God setting up a particular situation for people to be condemned...
The trouble is an omnipotent omnsicient God creating everything can see exactly what will happen based on his choices when creating everything. The moment God clicks his metaphorical fingers to create everything he knows that:
1) Mankind will Fall and he will have to punish them.
2) He'll have to kill almost all of them in a massive flood.
3) He'll have to impregnate a woman to create Jesus.
4) Most humans won't accept the story, or invent a different religion.
5) He'll have to create hell to burn most of their souls.
etc etc
God must have decided despite all this it was better to create this universe than not.
Getting back to the point about Atheism, obviously not all Christians believe what I have written above. Some say "God can't lie" or "God must be moral" or "God can't tolerate sin" which means God isn't entirely omnipotent, and some don't believe he is omniscient. There are tens on thousands of different sects, all believing slightly (or very) different things.
As Ian was pointing out above, these may be slightly archaic beliefs that modern Christians don't hold, so there isn't a lot of of point in doing what I've just done, as tempting as it is. Much better to ask them what they believe and why, and see if it has any merit.
I think, Ian was saying he believes because of historical evidence /philosophical reasoning.
As far as historical evidence goes, I'm not sure I could believe anything that extraordinary from just historical evidence. It doesn't even need to be historical. There are tens of thousands of Alien Abduction testimonies from the last 50 years, and I can speak to these people. I don't believe these either.
I'm also not sure you can demonstrate the existence of something by philosophical means alone. That is a huge topic!
Christians, don't worry though. If God is real, then he knows exactly what would be needed to convince me of his existence, even if I don't. He knows that if I wasn't convinced by talking to people like yourselves or looking at the evidence, he could intervene and reveal himself to me, so who knows, maybe this will happen?