Michael Shermer on The problem of hell

Michael Shermer's treatment of hell draws on his work as a historian of science and morality, especially The Moral Arc (2015). He argues that the doctrine of eternal conscious torment is one of the most vivid examples of a belief that has softened not through theological revision but through the moral progress of the surrounding society. Practices and doctrines once considered self-evident — slavery, corporal punishment, the torment of heretics, and ultimately hell itself — have been eroded as humans have extended their moral circle.

Shermer points to polling data and to the quiet shift within mainline Protestantism toward annihilationism or universalism as evidence that the doctrine of hell is being morally overtaken by its own adherents. He treats this as a telling pattern: if a doctrine claims to be the eternal truth delivered by a perfect God but must continually be softened to remain morally tolerable, then either the doctrine or the claim to eternal truth is failing.

On the philosophical question, Shermer endorses the proportionality objection. He notes that contemporary systems of criminal justice have largely moved away from purely retributive punishment toward rehabilitation — not because retribution is logically incoherent but because it is morally inadequate. Eternal conscious torment, he argues, is the purest form of retribution imaginable, which is precisely why it is now so difficult for serious Christian ethicists to defend in its classical form.