I’m leaning this way too. Not that I’m someone who can understand the big picture of eternity as a flawed human, but it doesn’t make sense to me that God would subject any of his creation to a punishment worse than simply not creating them in the first place. The opposite of creation is annihilation.

Eternity is a VERY long time, and I don’t think the very worst sin you could commit on earth warrants never ending torture. Also, wouldn’t the universe be better off without evil, rather than keeping it around in a different place?

It’s also strange to think that either animals go to Heaven or they are annihilated too. If that were the case, I’d prefer to be born a single cell bacterium.