A Utilitarian Objection To Annihilationism

Anytime a Christian says that anticipating total annihilation of consciousness instead of eternal conscious torment in hell would not motivate them to avoid sin, they betray a personal flaw, not a problem with the doctrine of annihilationism.  Comments like this are of no relevance to whether or not the Bible actually teaches annihilationism.  This does little to deter people from making similar comments when pressed for some sort of explanation of why they refuse to acknowledge the blatant Biblical affirmations of annihilationism.

It should not take anyone a large amount of time to realize that this says nothing about annihilationism, although it does suggest a great deal about the moral resolve of the one who admits to such a thing.  What this statement does say is that the one who makes it is unwilling to sincerely pursue righteousness if their subjective perceptions of what justice is do not match the actual nature of justice.  In other words, they do not care about morality itself, only about their own preferences.  A person like this cannot be legitimately said to have any sort of thorough concern for Biblical ethics for its own sake.

At the "intellectual" heart of their objection, which is ultimately rooted in nothing but personal psychology, is the implied premise that anything short of endless torture is not truly a punishment for sin.  Even the most staunch traditionalist on the issue of hell, though, would likely not assert that the suspension of certain privileges (like house arrest) or the infliction of limited pain (such as the floggings detailed in Deuteronomy 25:1-3) are not actual penalties.  Nevertheless, they often treat the irrevocable loss of eternal life as if it can hardly be called a punishment.

The temporality of pain does not make it a non-punishment any more than the temporality of a flogging does not make it a punishment (Deuteronomy 25:1-3, Luke 12:47-48)!  Only a fool would deny that Biblical flogging is a punishment, and yet many evangelicals would struggle to concede the obvious fact that permanent death, whether or not it is preceded by a period of anguish, is indeed a penalty at all.  Similarly, only a fool would ever pretend like the death penalty is not truly a punishment because it does not entail endless torment.

If someone truly thinks that annihilation is not a true punishment, he or she is stupid.  Moreover, if they truly would put little to no effort into avoiding sin if hell did not feature eternal conscious torment for every fallen being, they are guilty of neglecting their moral duties.  Biblical morality--which includes Biblical justice--is unaffected by someone's desires; the Bible's teachings are not dictated by what random individuals find subjectively motivating.  Annihilationism is Biblical because it corresponds to the nature of the God described by the Bible, not because of some utilitarian idea of deterrence.