@ragingloli Ah, but pretty much all religions are mutually exclusive. (The only exception that I can think of is Baha’i, which AFAIK fails to address that inherent exclusivity.) The number of different beliefs has no impact on the number of extant deities. Of course, we both know which God I was referring to.
God is rather fond of free will on general principles, hence He cannot “just make them all virtuous with but the wave of a hand.” I’m rather certain that you would appreciate that.
The command to annihilate the Caananites (this is what you were referring to, no?) was issued because, “Otherwise, they will teach you to follow all the detestable things they do in worshiping their gods, and you will sin against the LORD your God.” The Israelites didn’t follow through, and sure enough, this happened. Quite a few times.
Eternal damnation, after all, is worse than death.