Are Annihilationists Emotionalistic?

One charge that annihilationists might receive from ideological opponents is one of emotionalism: that they simply can't emotionally handle the concept of eternal conscious torment.  In some individual cases, the charge might be accurate; it is true that a large number of people do not have rational foundations for their beliefs.  However, this has nothing to do with the the arguments of all annihilationists, much less the truth of annihilationism.  And emotionalism drives the ideas of many people besides annihilationists.

Of course an annihilationist could hold to annihilationism on emotionalistic grounds, just like a proponent of eternal conscious torment could hold to ECT because of emotion.  Some annihilationists and some believers of eternal conscious torment might be emotionalists.  After all, in the case of the latter, it can be very emotionally difficult for some people to challenge beliefs that either they or others have clung to for years, and thus some people might even want eternal conscious torment to be true.

Maybe the ease of staying with a traditional view is appealing.  Perhaps it is difficult to accept that the historical church has been largely incorrect about a crucial matter.  Perhaps someone even takes pleasure at the thought of enemies or the general unsaved suffering acute, conscious, perpetual agony.  Any position can be believed in because of feelings, and pointing out that someone believes because of emotion does not refute a claim itself--it only exposes the stupidity of an argument or the inadequacy of someone's basis for a belief, not the actual belief.

I have proven that the Bible teaches annihilationism elsewhere on my blog, and not once have I claimed that it is true because of a feeling or preference.  I have never appealed to emotion or popularity (though annihilationism is certainly not an overtly popular position among Christians).  I have established annihilationism strictly through logic and analysis of Scripture.  Never once--in all the times I have addressed the topic of hell, or any topic at all--have I declared something true on the basis of feelings.