Why be in the Philosophy of Religion

[Pycyn <Pycyn@AOL.COM>]

>From a presentation by Frederick Gregory, History of Science, University of
Florida. at the 1998 Tallahassee Winter Conference of the John Templeton
Foundation Science and Religion Course Program.

A thermodynamics professor wrote a take-home examination for his graduate
students.  It had one questions:
            Is Hell exothermic or endothermic?
Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs usding Boyle's Law or some
variant.  One student, however, wrote the following:

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 at what rate are they leaving?  I think that we can
safely assume that once a soul gets into Hell, it will not leave.  Therefore,
no souls are leaving.  As for souls entering Hell, let's look at the different
religions that exist in the world today.  Some of these relgions state that if
you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell.  Since there are
more than one of these relgions and and people do not belong to more than one
relgion, 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 states that in order for the temperture and pressure in Hell to
stay the same, the ratio of the mass of souls and volume needs to stay
constant.

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

#2. Of course, if Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of
souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes
over.

So which is it?  If we accept the postulate given to me by Theresa Banyan
during our Freshman year, that "it will be a cold night in Hell before I sleep
with you," and take into account the fact that I still have not succeeded in
having sexual relations with her, then #2 cannot be true, and Hell is
exothermic.

The student go the only A.

>|83 pc