Even from a conceptual viewpoint, there's no pride in hell Anonymous (I really should start saying AO).
Anyway, my point is that those people in the time of Moses didn't have to rely on faith as much as we do. The fact of the matter is, they had God Himself to prove to them that he wasn't screwing around. It's one thing to break His law under the burden of faith, it's quite another to break it so flagrantly in front of His confirmed presence. The punishment for such actions now isn't going to be propotional to the punishment of back then--Especially not in the eyes of Christians (the ones who aren't radical anyway). So your example doesn't really work.
