Justice Is Not Maximal Severity

Annihilationists who think that eternal death, i.e. nonexistence of the soul, must be more severe than eternal torture just because the Bible teaches annihilationism are insane.  Annihilationism is obviously Biblical, as anyone who does not make assumptions can see very quickly from all sorts of verses such as Matthew 10:28 and 2 Peter 2:6.  The wages of sin is death (Romans 1:32, 6:23, Ezekiel 18:4).  The soul without eternal life, found only in a right relationship with God, is to perish (John 3:16).  Because a second, irrevocable death is justice, torture that never ends, even if the torture was on its own mild (like a petty annoyance), would be inherently unjust.  Aside from Biblical doctrines, if morality exists at all, endless torture for supposed "justice" would by logical necessity be immoral because it would exceed the nature of any amount of finite sins.

Some annihilationists believe the error that people must die in hell because the alternative would be emotionally devastating or terrifying.  Others believe that if God will kill the wicked forever, there could be nothing worse than this destiny.  Bodies and souls are killed in hell according to the Bible, yes, but reason and morality do not depend on what anyone wants.  Logic is true in itself and thus not even God can change it; morality is grounded in God, if he has a moral nature, and thus human preferences are irrelevant.  Either way, what makes something just is not that it is maximally severe.  Justice is not the worst thing that could be inflicted on someone.  Being physically beaten or sexually abused for eternity is objectively far worse than ceasing to exist, and only an utter fool would believe anything remotely to the contrary.  The latter is also exclusively a sin to be punished by non-Lex Talionis means (Deuteronomy 22:25-27, 25:11-12) rather than a righteous penalty for any sinners.

It not only does not logically follow that maximum severity is what makes something just, but it is also true that it is impossible for justice to be maximally severe for two reasons: eternal torture for limited sins of any duration is inherently disproportionate and there is no such thing as physical or psychological pain that could not be worse.  Since physical pain still requires a conscious mind to subjectively experience it, and since psychological pain is objectively subjective in one sense, the fear or agony a suffering individual has could always be at least slightly worse, even if the outward manifestations of the punishment (like flogging) were the same.  A person could not experience logically contradictory states of mind like an absence of pain and the presence of pain.  Regardless, there is no actual intrinsic limit to the degree of pleasure or suffering that could be hypothetically experienced.

Something like murder, adultery, sorcery, or kidnapping could never deserve a fate worse than murder as its penalty, which eternal torture plainly is.  Something like rape or many physical/sexual abuses are or at least can be even far, far worse than murder.  Perpetual suffering in Yahweh's hell (or any other allegedly moralistic afterlife) would be worse than these singular acts of abuse that far eclipse the likes of theft or murder simply by nature of being unending.  There is no escape from the standard evangelical hell by serving one's sentence or by repentance.  The Bible teaches that limited suffering before permanent death without resurrection is what will befall the unrepentant wicked (Luke 12:47-48, Revelation 20:15, Malachi 4:1-3, 2 Thessalonians 2:9-10).  There is no eternal torment of the resurrected, sinful masses by a deity who demands that no one receives more than 40 lashes (Deuteronomy 25:1-3).  Things far less severe than endless torture are condemned in Mosaic Law that reflects Yahweh's nature.