Of course people can still reject it using human reasoning.
Because it
is human reasoning. Of course no one will ever admit it aloud, but the whole "sins against an infinite God demand therefore infinite conscious punishment" argument is them saying what
they think God should do about unbelievers, not what the Bible says He will actually do. The closest thing to infinite conscious punishment - which of course inevitably equates to torture, like it or not - mentioned in Scripture is the verse about the righteous going on to eternal life, but the unrighteous to eternal punishment, in Matthew 25:46. And people somehow weigh this one verse in as undoubtedly meaning eternal conscious torment even in lieu of battalions of verses elsewhere using terms such as "dead", "destroy", "perish", "consumed", "burned UP" (not just burned infinitely somehow without ever actually being killed by the fire so that the victim is alive to feel the pain of being burned by fire forever, but burned UP).
_________
And then I always hear this argument from those who want so badly for eternal conscious torment to be the Biblical truth: "So, what, you annihilationist guys are saying unbelievers get off scott-free by just blinking out of existence instead? Well, that's no punishment! No pain or suffering, nothing? Everyone would just want to live in sin forever instead of believing in Christ if they thought all that awaited for them at the end was non-existence!" And I have all too many rebuttals to that:
First of all, that isn't what most people who take the conditional immortality stance like me even necessarily believe: that it is a painless, just "blinking out of existence". Your life, your soul being blotted out forever, most likely destroyed in literal fire to burn up all last traces of your soul such that even "the memory of you will perish" (sorry, do not remember the verse that quote is found in), doesn't sound like a fun ride to me where it is totally worth it to reject God and Christ in this life in order to so-called live it up in sin, instead.
Second of all,
what if it even was just a painless disappearing from existence? What if the punishment for unbelief wasn't as painful as you personally believe it should be? Who would you be to tell God that His enemies deserve to suffer more than that? How God's method of justice should go? The way I have heard some people so stubbornly advocate eternal conscious torment (not saying you are one of them, mind you, Greg), even to the point of condemning me to that very hell of infinite torments for not believing it is the Biblically correct view of what happens to unbelievers, all I can say is
thank God He is the ultimate Judge and not you (again, not you specifically Greg, the hypothetical you).
Thirdly, it is practically ridiculous to believe that the view of Hell as eternal torment or literal everlasting destruction will be the make-or-break factor in the situation of an unbeliever coming to Christ. I doubt that most of the people who reject Christ even believe there is a God, Heaven, or Hell in the first place to have the mindset that it is not worth coming to Christ if they could instead just "live in sin" and have fun with that all their lives and the only consequence for it be a literal death, the extinguishing of one's life. They aren't going to believe in any kind of Hell or consequence for sin in the first place, anyway, or that they even have something called sin in their hearts that needs to be forgiven by a God. A Calvinist would tell you that unbelievers are completely unregenerate and reprobate before the moment they believe in Christ, anyway; why would such a person, if not called to believe in Christ, even have the capacity of mind to weigh in on any possible consequence of their sin and unbelief, anyway? So how then could someone who does not yet believe actually look at conditional immortality (less appropriately called "annihilationism") versus eternal conscious torment in hell, and go, hmmm, well, there's no point in accepting this Jesus Christ and being saved, then, because I can go off and have fun living my own life and not receive any real consequence for it in the end.
Fourth, should eternal torment be the motivator for believing in Christ in the first place? What kind of loving relationship with God is that, when you only do so because of fear of Him throwing you into an eternal torture chamber otherwise? Since when is fear the heart of true love?
Fifth and perhaps most importantly, I can give you a specific example of a friend of mine who once gave me the above quoted argument (about how unbelievers are getting off too easy for their sin if all that awaits them as punishment is annihilation) when she tried to convince me away from the conditional immortality stance in favor of taking the traditional eternal torment belief again. She actually said this: "The God
I know wouldn't let sinners off so easily." This was coming from someone who had divulged some details of her sordid past before becoming a believer (and I do not doubt her veracity as a believer either despite my disagreeing with her strongly on this one Biblical subject, mind you) to me, which I had absolutely no qualms about still being friends with her in spite of that. They did not shock me one bit to where I would look down on her in any way for them. And yet here she is, now saved and no longer an enemy of God, advocating for a harsher punishment for those who will not be saved and believe,
when she was once one of them. How convenient if you ask me. Would she be willing to extend the sinners she spoke of as getting off the hook so easily the same (very little) amount of grace if she were still considered one of them by God? I sincerely doubt it. But apparently Christ-believers who talk like this have no problem saying how eternal conscious torment is the only fitting punishment for unbelievers after the fact; they seem to have forgotten how they themselves were once one of those unbelieving sinners who deserve the "justice" of an eternal hell. But hey, it's okay to say in so many ways how God needs to get those evil little sinners once you have converted and are safely on the other side, right?
One good thing about my finally rejecting this traditional view of hell is how, in the so doing, I find myself just naturally treating other people who do not yet believe with a little more grace. Just like God did - and still does - with me.
I'm leaving it at that.
