Why would God punish someone for not believing?

You really don't have any control on what you believe. You can't just simply say "I believe" and you do. Sure, you can act like you believe but it's not the same. It would be like me trying to force you to believe in Santa or something. And why would he/she send a righteous person that made very minimal mistakes, but didn't believe, to hell? Something just doesn't sound right with the whole Christianity thing and it's bugging me. I used to be a christian (I think), but as I got older and gained a little more understanding I kinda lost my faith. Just like what happened with Santa Claus.