A chara, – Archbishop Diarmuid Martin has my sympathy . If, when asked on RTÉ radio about hell, he had given it a full-welly, fire and brimstone response, he would surely have been hit with a barrage of accusations that he was trying to bully and scare people back into the pews. His more nuanced reply has him all but being called a doctrine denier. Surely a case of “damned if you do, damned if you don’t”. – Is mise,
Rev PATRICK G BURKE,
Castlecomer,
Co Kilkenny.
Sir, – Presupposing the existence of Hell, an interesting thermodynamic conundrum then is presented, namely whether the conditions therein are exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat).
Based upon the principle of the conservation of energy, does the very high temperature in Hell, or as Milton put it “a fiery deluge, fed/With ever-burning sulphur unconsumed”, depend for its sustenance upon the injection of heat from an external source (endothermic) or does it result from an internal heat source (exothermic)?
This conundrum was considered some years ago by an engineering student who postulated that if the rate at which souls enter Hell is greater than the rate at which Hell is expanding to accommodate them then, in accordance with Boyle’s law, the temperature and pressure will increase until all Hell breaks loose.
Alternatively, if Hell is expanding faster than the rate at which souls are entering, again in conformance with Boyle’s law, the temperature and pressure will fall until Hell freezes over.
No conclusive evidence to support either scenario was forthcoming but, if Milton is to be believed, it has to be accepted that the expansion rate of Hell is exactly balanced by the ingress rate of damned souls for steady-state conditions of temperature and pressure to prevail. – Yours, etc,
DAVID MILNE,
Kempton Park,
South Africa.
Sir, – With regard to the question “Do you believe in Hell?”, at least, thank God, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin has his doubts, when he believes in only the possibility of Hell. All that Hell and damnation nonsense is what destroyed this country for years. – Yours, etc,
BRIAN McDEVITT,
Ardconnaill,
Glenties,
Co Donegal.