Scientific explanation of how Hell might work

Scientific explanation of how Hell might work

Some of you might have noticed the favourite past time of Christians losing an argument: Damming the non-believers and blasphemers to the imaginary HELL where we will suffer in eternity.

Besides it not really having the intended effect, apart from arousing some of the more disturbed religious folk, on the non-believers it also falls in the same category as Gods and Heaven – i.e. there is no scientific evidence for the existence of Hell.

It is ironic that some of the Christians commenting on this forum have indicated, albeit in subtlety, that other Christians (belonging to the other 33000+ denominations) is on their way to Hell if they do not follow one of the other 33000+ true Christian denominations. How one would spot the correct one is really beyond me – I think I rather prefer the odds of the Lotto.

But let us define Hell:
hell (h l)
n.
1.
a. often Hell The abode of condemned souls and devils in some religions; the place of eternal punishment for the wicked after death, presided over by Satan.
b. A state of separation from God; exclusion from God's presence.

Or maybe in more graphic detail from the Bible:
A place of weeping and gnashing of teeth - "And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matthew 25:30).
A place where men are tormented with fire and brimstone - "But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death" (Revelation 21:8).
A place where fire is not quenched - "Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched" (Mark 9:44).
A bottomless pit - "And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit" (Revelation 9:2).
It is ultimately a lake of fire - "And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death" (Revelation 20:14).
"A place of hopelessness and suffering - as a woman is about to give birth to a child, many go through painful labor that can last from a few minutes to a few days. But through this painful anguishing time, there is hope that when the child is born this terrible labor pain will subside. Just imagine if you can if that pain was multiplied many times over and you would never have hope of it ever going away forever? You would do anything to die to get rid of the pain, but it would always remain and continue forever and ever and ever." – This one is particularly disturbing. I hope Satan have not caught onto the whole Kidney Stone torture method for men.

But in the interest of taking these threats seriously, let’s see if we can maybe rationally flesh this out.

So let’s start with a location, where would Hell be? As with all things religious, the religious cannot actually reach consensus; it ranges from “below the Earth” to simply a “state of separation from God”. But I must admit I was always taught there will be special, very real place for those separated from God. That Hell simply will not be a place where church bells do not wake you up too early on a Sunday Morning (dammit!) – It will accommodate the lost souls and it will be hot, very hot (almost like the United Kingdom at the moment) with lots of nooks and crannies for torture that would make the folk at Guantanamo Bay envious.

So, let’s attempt to do some creationist science to prove some physical properties of a very real place my child is getting scared with at school: A thermodynamics professor had written a take home exam for his graduate students; it had only one question: “Is hell exothermic or endothermic? Support your answer with a proof.”

Most students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle’s Law or some variant. Boyle’s Law being shortly defined as: “Boyle's law describes the inversely proportional relationship between the absolute pressure and volume of a gas, if the temperature is kept constant within a closed system”.

One student came up with an interesting answer: First, we postulate that if souls exist, then they must have some mass. If they do, then a mole of souls can also have a mass. So, at what rate are souls moving into hell and then out of it? I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to hell, it will not leave. Therefore, not souls are leaving.

As for souls entering hell, let’s look at the different religions that exist in the world today. Some of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to hell. Since there are more than one of these religions and people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all people and all souls go to hell.

With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in hell to increase exponentially.
Now, we look at the rate of change in volume in Hell. Boyle’s Law state that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the ratio of the mass of souls and volume needs to stay constant.

So, if Hell is expanding at a slower rate that the rate at which souls enters Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.

Of course, if Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell (due to cosmic construction), then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.

In conclusion: Much like the science employed on Young Earth Creationist websites explaining how the earth is only 6000 years old, I am a bit sceptical about this theory. But since the only thing I like flame grilled is my Nando’s Chicken, I will give the prospect some thought. Regardless, it smacks of pseudo-science and a pseudo-intellectual that is trying to make sense of the predicaments we find ourselves in.
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