Detecting Truth

When I was attending Louisiana Tech University, I attended a class called Classical Thermodynamics as part of the Electrical Engineering curriculum. One of the curious things about the class was the particular book we used authored by Dr. Gordon J. Van Wylen and Dr. Richard E. Sonntag (Fundamentals of Classical Thermodynamics). This textbook was in its second edition then. I just checked and it is still available (7th edition) and considered the leading textbook in its field.

At the end of the chapter on the Second Law of Thermodynamics the authors state the following:

The final point to be made is that the second law of thermodynamics and the principle of the increase of entropy have philosophical implications. {skipped text} The authors see the second law of thermodynamics as man’s description of the prior and continuing work of the creator, who also holds the answer to the future destiny of man and the universe.

Information on Dr. Wylen
Retirement Tribute to Dr. Richard Sonntag

So what is it about the second law of thermodynamics that would prompt such a statement from these men. Well, lets take a look.

First Law of Thermodynamics
Let’s start with the first law of thermodynamics that states that energy (the ability to do work) cannot be created or destroyed. Stated another way, the amount of energy in the universe is always exactly the same (constant). Energy is manifested in many forms such as heat, chemical, electrical, mechanical, magnetic, etc. For example, we use electrical energy when we turn on lights. Some of the electrical energy is converted to light, however much of the electrical energy is converted to heat and is dissipated into the surroundings. However, none of the energy is destroyed.

Second Law of Thermodynamics
Energy flows as it performs work. The first law states nothing about the direction of the flow. Enter the second law of thermodynamics. This law states that energy, unconstrained or naturally, always flows in a direction that will result in its dissipation (but not its destruction). Alternatively, it states that processes, systems, and stuff in general naturally change over time from a state of more order to a state of less order.

By naturally, I mean without outside interference by man or other means (i.e. letting nature take its course). A few examples should make this observation very clear.

If you place a cup of hot coffee on a table, the heat in the coffee will flow into the surroundings until the coffee has reached the same temperature as those surroundings. The reverse has never been observed.

When a battery powered flashlight is turned on, the chemical energy in battery dissipates as light and heat via the light bulb. In fact, you don’t even have to turn on the flashlight for the battery to run down- it just does somehow. I bet that has never happened to you . Light has never been observed naturally entering the flashlight and recharging the battery.

Melting snow always naturally flows from the mountain top to the valley. Water has never been observed naturally flowing from the valley up to the mountain top.

Your home, air conditioner, appliances, roof, etc, will naturally wear out (become more disordered) over time. The only way to prevent this is to “invest more energy” or work on them thus increasing the order of the thing you are working on.

Since I work in the oil industry, I’m familiar with the huge amount of money oil companies spend on maintenance programs to maintain the state of oil production platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. Without a good maintenance program, it won’t take long for the platform and its integrated systems to break down and stop working.

You can probably envision many more examples of this phenomenon that occur every day. This is how natural processes proceed and an exception has never been observed. Things just naturally move from a state of more order to a state of less order over time when left unattended.

Entropy
The dissipation of energy available to perform work can be measured in terms of unavailable energy or Entropy of a system. Thus, the Entropy (amount of energy NOT available to perform work) of a system or process will naturally increase over time as the energy in that system seeks to dissipate or seeks equilibrium with its surroundings.

Now, the nice thing about energy is that it can perform work that makes our everyday life easier. Consider the mountain stream fed by melting snow. If we put a paddle wheel in the stream and connect the shaft of the wheel to a generator we can convert the kinetic energy in the flowing water into electrical energy that we could use to turn on a light bulb. The melting snow contains energy that can be harnessed to perform work. Once all the snow is melted and reaches the lowest point in the valley, the melted snow has lost most of its capacity to perform work (i.e. its Entropy has increased).

The logical extreme of this concept is that the entropy of the universe will continue to increase until the entire universe has reached the same temperature everywhere as stars, energy sources, etc. completely dissipate all their energy. We, of course, will become extinct by then due to our own Sun’s energy being dissipated.

Philosophical Implications of the Second Law of Thermodynamics
Creation and Maintenance of the Universe
If, universally, all systems and processes are “winding down”, dissipating energy and becoming more disordered over time, this implies the universe will at some point reach a state of equilibrium with constant temperature everywhere and the energy in all stars and other systems will have dissipated. Since this has not yet happened, the implication is that the universe has NOT always existed or else equilibrium would have already been reached. The universe exists, thus it must have had a beginning. Since natural processes have never been observed creating something from nothing, the only explanation for the existence of the universe is an un-natural or super-natural creation.

Since we are unaware of any universal maintenance program, we can conclude that the universe will continually proceed in the direction of increasing disorder (Entropy) and energy dissipation, thus eventually reaching a state of equilibrium everywhere.

Creation and Maintenance of Life
All known lifeforms from the human being down to the simplest single cell organism, such as a bacteria, are so complex that man has not been able create life from its non-living component parts. In contrast, man has built a Space Shuttle, carried parts into space and then built a space station that orbits the earth. These two systems represent the most complex systems that man has been able to create and their complexity is staggering and amazing. However, in comparison, the human body is even more complex and probably by a large margin.

No one would believe that the NASA Space Station, if you just wait long enough, would assemble itself. Instead the process to build it took thousands of engineers, scientists, laborers, etc. to design (purpose in mind) and build it. The processes used to build the space station do not conflict with the second law of thermodynamics. In fact, if left unattended, the space station will eventually lose power and drift back into the earth’s atmosphere and burn up as it plunges to earth.

So, consider how life could come into being. Whether you consider a bacteria or a human being, life represents a state of very high order and complexity that operates and performs according the known laws of nature. Is it conceivable that non-organic matter (atoms, molecules, etc.) could arrange themselves into ever increasing states of complexity over time that ultimately led to the first single cell organism? If this did occur, it would represent a contradiction with the second law of thermodynamics and would be the only known natural process that has resulted in continuously INCREASING order over time rather than decreasing in order over time.

Open vs. Closed System Counter Argument
The 2nd law of thermodynamics states that within a “closed” system, Entropy increases over time. Imagine if you could put the Earth in a box and NOTHING could get in or out including things like sunlight. This would be a closed system. You could also imagine how this would accelerate the process of increasing Entropy for an Earth in such a box. Since the Earth is NOT a closed system, some argue that the 2nd law of thermodynamics is overcome by the injection of energy into what would otherwise be a closed system thus giving rise to life on Earth via a natural process. Good point, since an investment of energy does temporarily decrease Entropy of a system.

However, the flaw in this logic is that for energy to be useful, it must have the right “QUALITY” for the particular application. Additionally, you could argue the there must be “PLAN” for the use of the energy. For example, consider plant photosynthesis. For sunlight to be used by a plant, there must exist an amazingly complex set of processes (the plan) in each plant cell to use the sunlight to produce food for the plant. Additionally, the plant requires energy in the form of (or have the quality of) sunlight. If you put plants in a dark room and add heat energy instead, the plants will eventfully die (in spite of the continuous investment of “heat” energy).

Consider any other investment of energy that you can think of. Isn’t there a particular quality of energy required and a plan for the use of that energy. I’m a project manager and use energy in the form of human manpower to increase order around me at work. I spend a lot of time making a plan on how to use the manpower made available to me to achieve specific objectives of the project. Petroleum based energy (diesel) is used by earth moving equipment to prepare land for a new building. The list goes on.

Conclusion
It seems reasonable that the energy and the plan that created life had to be from an intelligent designer. The God of the Holy Scripture. God created a perfect universe without the effects of Entropy or increasing disorder.

Could it be true that:
1) Upon the completion of the act of creation, the amount of energy in the universe was set and became constant (see 1st law of thermodynamics above)?
2) after Adam and Eve sinned by eating from the “Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil”, God cursed his creation, thus establishing the 2nd law of thermodynamics and everything has been moving in a direction of increasing Entropy (disorder) ever since?

God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. Genesis 1:31