I don't know where you have gotten your impression of God, but a "big bad daddy ready to clobber you with everlasting torment" doesn't describe the God of the Scriptures; the God who loved us so much He sent His son to take our place in that "everlasting torment" so that we wouldn't have to spend eternity there and suffered the heartbreak of the loss of His Son so that we could spend eternity with Him. That's not someone whose ready to "clobber" anybody.
And since each person has his own definition of an "honorable and ethical life in relation to others", I'd hate to be the person whose definition didn't measure up to God's. What if what we consider to be "honorable and ethical" differs from somebody like Jeffrey Dahmer's opinion of "honorable and ethical"? How do we know who is right? Where do we go to find out if our definition is the one God will accept?
I see people all the time who live their lives according to their own "moral code" and never suffer any consequences at all, not in this life at least. Donald Trump, for example, marries women, makes babies, discards the women and the kids and goes on to the next one and keeps getting richer and richer and richer. Donald Trump is quite comfortable, I'm sure, with his behavior which has caused him no genuine suffering whatsoever. Donald Trump suffers no consequences as the result of his choices.
At any rate, the fact remains that we do have free will, and we will one day face God, and will answer for the choices we have made. And we will meet Jesus Christ as either our Savior or as our Judge. It's our choice.
one day we will face God and answer for the choices we have made. And we will meet Jesus and face him as our Savior or Judge”
Exactly my point, big daddy (God, Jesus) standing over us ready to judge and/or punish.
Actually for at least 2,500 years philosophers and religious persons alike have basically ascribed to the Golden Rule. do unto others as you would have them do unto you, or do not do anything to another that you would not like to have done to you. By this measure Donald Trump has fallen a bit behind.