Sir

It is surprising to read that creationists in Kansas are lobbying the state board of education to include their views in school science teaching1. A literal reading of the Bible can sometimes be absurd, and it contains many numerical data that reflect only the views of an earlier age. These numbers can be the origin of funny calculations2. A colleague and I published a squib in which, using paragraphs from the biblical books of Isaiah and Revelation, the temperatures of heaven and hell were calculated as 504.5 and 716.6 K respectively3.

The calculation was discussed widely in the media. In the UK Sunday Times (9 August 1998), a geophysicist suggested possible locations, based on our results. Hell might be the hydrothermal vents on the bottom of the ocean, and heaven could be the thermosphere. It must be satisfying for creationists that such places can now be reached, thanks to the work of scientists.