Weaver - How hot is Hell?

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Official: hell's fires burn at 455°C

The Sunday Times

Modern science casts a slightly wry eye at the traditional legends. First published August 9.

"the fearful and unbelieving ... shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone"
HELL is in no danger of freezing over. Scientists have calculated how hot eternity could be for unrepentant sinners and it is 445C, writes Mark Austin.
Using descriptions from the Bible, the researchers discovered that heaven could also prove uncomfortable. In paradise, those who are saved should expect a sultry 232C.
For their calculation of hell's temperature, the scientists used a passage in the Book of Revelations which relates that "the fearful and unbelieving . . . shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone".
"This passage implies that the temperature of hell must be equal to or somewhat below the boiling point of brimstone, better known as sulphur, which is 717.6 Kelvin [445C] at normal pressure," said Jorge Mira Perez, a physicist at the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain, who carried out the work.
Perez and his colleague Jose Vina, also a physicist, even consulted the Bishop of Madrid to check whether their choice of passages and interpretations was correct.
To calculate the temperature of heaven, they used a passage from Isaiah that describes the brightness of the sun and moon there: "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." They then used a complex law of physics known as the Stefan-Boltzmann fourth-power law of radiation to deduce heaven's temperature to be 232C.

the old idea that hell is right in the middle cannot be true.

According to Roger Searle, professor of geophysics at the University of Durham, the team's findings have finally exploded at least one myth about where hell is to be found. "The temperature at the centre of the earth is about 6,000C, so the old idea that hell is right in the middle cannot be true. The only places on earth that have a temperature of 450C are hydrothermal vents on the bottom of the ocean, so perhaps we should stay away from them in future," he said.
As for heaven, Searle said: "There is a layer of the atmosphere called the thermosphere where the temperature is around 200C, so perhaps heaven really is in the sky."
The findings have provoked a heated debate among religious experts who, bemused by the calculations, said that they were meaningless because biblical texts had to be interpreted in the context of the time in which they were written.
A spokesman for the Evangelical Alliance said: "You have to suspend knowledge and rationality to believe that this is genuine scientific knowledge. The irony is that it is usually scientists who accuse theologians of being irrational."
According to a recent report by the Doctrine Commission on behalf of the Church of England, hell should be seen as a state of nothingness rather than eternal torment and burning fires.

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This page updated October 3, 1998


	"the fearful and unbelieving ... shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone"	HELL is in no danger of freezing over. Scientists have calculated how hot eternity could be for unrepentant sinners and it is 445C, writes Mark Austin. Using descriptions from the Bible, the researchers discovered that heaven could also prove uncomfortable. In paradise, those who are saved should expect a sultry 232C. For their calculation of hell's temperature, the scientists used a passage in the Book of Revelations which relates that "the fearful and unbelieving . . . shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone". "This passage implies that the temperature of hell must be equal to or somewhat below the boiling point of brimstone, better known as sulphur, which is 717.6 Kelvin [445C] at normal pressure," said Jorge Mira Perez, a physicist at the University of Santiago de Compostela in Spain, who carried out the work. Perez and his colleague Jose Vina, also a physicist, even consulted the Bishop of Madrid to check whether their choice of passages and interpretations was correct. To calculate the temperature of heaven, they used a passage from Isaiah that describes the brightness of the sun and moon there: "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." They then used a complex law of physics known as the Stefan-Boltzmann fourth-power law of radiation to deduce heaven's temperature to be 232C.
	the old idea that hell is right in the middle cannot be true.	According to Roger Searle, professor of geophysics at the University of Durham, the team's findings have finally exploded at least one myth about where hell is to be found. "The temperature at the centre of the earth is about 6,000C, so the old idea that hell is right in the middle cannot be true. The only places on earth that have a temperature of 450C are hydrothermal vents on the bottom of the ocean, so perhaps we should stay away from them in future," he said. As for heaven, Searle said: "There is a layer of the atmosphere called the thermosphere where the temperature is around 200C, so perhaps heaven really is in the sky." The findings have provoked a heated debate among religious experts who, bemused by the calculations, said that they were meaningless because biblical texts had to be interpreted in the context of the time in which they were written. A spokesman for the Evangelical Alliance said: "You have to suspend knowledge and rationality to believe that this is genuine scientific knowledge. The irony is that it is usually scientists who accuse theologians of being irrational." According to a recent report by the Doctrine Commission on behalf of the Church of England, hell should be seen as a state of nothingness rather than eternal torment and burning fires.