By lack of God's presence, I wasn't speaking of any physical presence in a strict sense. Its a lack of fellowship in the light of something like a lord-vassal relationship.

Imagine for a moment that a vassal misuses the land their given, so the lord who normally upholds the land and keeps things in order ceases to uphold the land in their entire capacity. In the meanwhile now, the vassal has to deal with the things they never had to worry about before. Things like wild animals attacking livestock....or something. The vassal can shake their fist at the lord all they want, but they knew what the consequences would be. They were given responsibility and they fudged up. I would love to see that vassal take the lord to court.

Some might object to this comparison on the grounds that legally, we don't work this way as humans anymore. If you use an ounce of imagination, I'm sure you can come up with an equally valid modern comparison.

I won't bother, since in my experience most committed atheists are unwilling to even play along on matters such as these. Its a waste of time.