← All arguments
Objection 09 · Infinite punishment for finite sin

An eternal hell is unjust.

The objection, in full

Even the worst sinner — Hitler, Stalin, the child murderer — committed at most a few decades of finite wrongs. To punish a finite wrong with infinite torment is moral monstrosity. No human court would do this. A God who would is morally beneath us.

I would rather hell than the heaven of a god who tortures the dead.
— common formulation; cf. Bertrand Russell

or, in plain terms —I'm a decent person and your God would still send me to burn forever?

Thomas Aquinas
scholastic, the Five Ways
1225–1274

The gravity of sin is measured by what it offends, not by how long it takes.

A slap is a small offense to a peer, a great offense to a parent, a grave offense to a king, and a capital offense to the divine majesty. The act takes the same instant; its weight is given by its object.

Hell is not God inflicting torment on creatures who would prefer his presence. It is the eternal ratification of a will that has finally and freely refused him. To force such a will into communion would be to abolish it.

The fire is real. It is also not the worst part. The worst part is the loss.

Citations Summa Theologiae, Suppl., q.99 · Contra Gentiles III, c.144
Ad maiorem Dei gloriam