From: David D. Levine [davidl@ssd.intel.com]
Sent: Thursday, November 02, 1995 9:00 AM
To: GT-PFRC Mailing List
Subject: Re: Climate and the Afterlife.

> "The temperature of Heaven can be rather accurately computed.  Our
> authority is Isaiah 30:26, "Moreover, the light of the Moon shall be as
> the light of the Sun and the light of the Sun shall be sevenfold, as
> the light of seven days."  Thus Heaven receives from the Moon as much
> radiation as we do from the Sun, and in addition 7*7 (49) times as much
> as the Earth does from the Sun, or 50 times in all.  The light we
> receive from the Moon is one 1/10,000 of the light we receive from the
> Sun, so we can ignore that ... The radiation falling on Heaven will
> heat it to the point where the heat lost by radiation is just equal to
> the heat received by radiation, i.e., Heaven loses 50 times as much
> heat as the Earth by radiation.  Using the Stefan-Boltzmann law for
> radiation, (H/E)^4 = 50, where E is the absolute temperature of the
> earth (-300K), gives H as 798K (525C).  The exact temperature of Hell
> cannot be computed ... [However] Revelations 21:8 says "But the
> fearful, and unbelieving ... shall have their part in the lake which
> burneth with fire and brimstone."  A lake of molten brimstone means
> that its temperature must be at or below the boiling point, 444.6C.  We
> have, then, that Heaven, at 525C is hotter than Hell at 445C."
> 
> From "Applied Optics" vol. 11, A14, 1972

I've heard this one many times before, but this time around I noticed
that it doesn't work.  

The statement "the light of the Sun shall be sevenfold, as the light of
seven days" is *not* a 49x multiplier.  It's just a 7x multiplier,
reiterated for poetic effect (as so many things in the Bible are; for
example, Genesis 1:27: "So God created man in his own image, in the
image of God created he him").  None of the other online Bibles I've
checked support this 49x interpretation.  The NIV version is completely
unambiguous: "the sunlight will be seven times brighter, like the light
of seven full days".

Unfortunately, using a 7x instead of 49x multipler the whole proof
collapses.  If (H/E)^4 = 8, and E is 300K (not -300K, of course), I
calculate H to be only 504K (231C).  Still hot, but not nearly as hot
as Hell (still 445C).

Too bad.  The fact that Heaven is hotter than Hell had been an
important point in my personal theology.

- David "thank God for the WWW" Levine == davidl@ssd.intel.com