[extropy-chat] Hell

[Alan Eliasen]

Alfio Puglisi wrote:
> Isaiah 30:26 reads, "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 the earth does
> from the sun, and in addition seven times seven (forty nine) times as much
> as the earth does from the sun, or fifty times in all.

   I had considered a different interpretation.  In the quoted bit, it
doesn't say that the light of the sun *per day* is sevenfold the light
of seven days, but rather during some unspecified time period, the light
would be that intense, making it potentially much brighter.

   I know Isaiah always followed SI guidelines for proper notation of
physical quantities, and he would have kept the "per day" if he meant
it, and that's the only way the dimensions would come out conformal.

   I did another lookup in a literal translation, and it says:

   "And the light of the moon hath been as the light of the sun, And the
light of the sun is sevenfold, As the light of seven days, In the day of
Jehovah's binding up the breach of His people, When the stroke of its
wound He healeth."

   As this states that the sun is that bright *per day* it was clear
that it was 49 times brighter.  Lousy editors always fuddlin' the
scientists' units.  I know thee well.

   However, I have to note that this whole analysis is based on a flawed
premise--reading the surrounding passage, it's clear that Isaiah isn't
talking about heaven at all, but an event that will occur on earth.
This makes the numbers easier to reconcile--one could, in the future,
come up with a configuration where the moon has moved further from the
earth due to tidal kneading and such, and the sun has swollen into a red
giant which delivers more power to the earth, or something.

   Exact numerical analysis of the stellar evolution cycle and lunar
orbit decay to predict when this will actually happen are left as an
exercise to the reader, or biblical scholar who, knowing well every
thought and intention of God, will find this problem trivial.

-- 
  Alan Eliasen                 | "You cannot reason a person out of a
  eliasen at mindspring.com       |  position he did not reason himself
  http://futureboy.homeip.net/ |  into in the first place."
                               |     --Jonathan Swift