How things started, and the first and second laws of thermodynamics

The laws of thermodynamics rank as among the most important, perhaps the most important scientific laws. There are four such laws, but I will concern myself with only the first and second ones. These two are most obviously important in biology, and I’m a biologist.

The Wikipedia article that the paragraph above links to says this in describing the First Law of Thermodynamics: “. . . energy can be neither created nor destroyed. However, energy can change forms, and energy can flow from one place to another. The total energy of an isolated system remains the same.” Energy changes forms in many ways. For example, the energy stored, in chemical form, in gasoline changes form to motion, heat, light and sound in an automobile. Matter is a form of energy, as Einstein indicated in his famous equation, E = mc².

The First Law indicates that the universe has always been in existence. The Second Law of Thermodynamics is a little harder to explain and define, but it says that “all natural processes are irreversible. . .” The reason is that entropy, which is a measure of the disorder of an system, is always increasing in an isolated system.

Here’s an illustration of the Second Law:

 

The lower half of the graphic shows a situation where entropy/disorder has increased, such that it is not possible to extract resources, including energy and various forms of matter, from the system, because the components are randomly dispersed. Suppose, for instance, that all the oil in the world was thoroughly mixed into the ocean. (Oil and water don’t mix well, of course, but this is a thought experiment.) There would be no incentive to extract (or drill for, or mine) that oil, because it would take more energy to do so than we would gain from such extraction.

If the First Law has always been true, the universe (as an isolated system) has always been here. However, if the Second Law has always been true, and the universe has always been in existence, the entropy/disorder of the universe (as an isolated system) would have reached its maximum, because entropy, in an isolated system, increases with time, and “always” is so much time that this would have happened. It would not be possible for life to exist in such a universe.

But we do! How?

There are these possibilities:
1) The laws of thermodynamics have not always been true.
2) The universe is not an isolated system.
3) We have misinterpreted the effects of the First and Second Laws of Thermodynamics.

I shall ignore the third possibility. I don’t think many scientists would take it seriously.

If either, or both of the first two possibilities are true, then the universe, or these two important laws, describing how the universe works, came into existence at some time in the past -- the universe, or these laws, or both, have not always been in existence. Let me put it another way. The First Law tells us that the universe has always been in existence. The Second Law tells us that, if the universe has always been in existence, it would be at a state of maximum entropy/disorder. It isn’t.

This means that science has no good explanation for the origin, or the continued existence, of a livable universe. Stephen Hawking, and a co-author, have made an attempt. It is possible that Hawking’s Grand Design will turn out to be true, but the Wikipedia article on Hawking’s ideas has plenty of criticism of that attempt, including criticism by scientists who do not believe that there is a God.

The Bible says, in the classic words of the King James Bible, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1) There is no attempt to prove anything. The statement just assumes it. This is a way out of the dilemma posed by the First and Second Laws. The universe was, as it were, jump-started by supernatural, God-caused, God-directed, creation from nothing. It hasn’t always existed.

Most scientists believe that there was a Big Bang -- an initial act in the existence of the universe as we know it, at some definite time in the past. Such a belief does not rule out the existence of an all-powerful Creator. In fact, that belief is compatible with a belief in such a Creator. It may well be that God began the universe in that way.

It is not possible to scientifically prove, or disprove, the existence of God. (Even Stephen Hawking, who does not believe in God, has said so). But it is possible to believe it. Hebrews 11:3 says “By faith, we understand that the universe has been framed by the word of God, so that what is seen has not been made out of things which are visible.” (World English Bible, public domain)

Thanks for reading.

The Resurrection, Superstition, and the Second Law of Thermodynamics

Death and the Second Law of Thermodynamics (The photo above is of a maple leaf. This post is not an April Fool joke!)

Ephesians 1:18b . . . that you may know what is the hope of his calling, and what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to that working of the strength of his might 20 which he worked in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and made him to sit at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come.  

The definitions of life and death are complex, and philosophical as well as biological. Generally, living things are in a constant battle with the second law of thermodynamics. So long as they can obtain enough energy, they win this battle. They can build themselves. They build themselves as non-random, ordered objects. Living things do this, however, only at the expense of order in the universe at large. We can expend energy to build, but, when we do, we are unbuilding something else -- we are causing entropy to increase. However, when we do so, we are taking energy from somewhere else.

For example, we can straighten the back seat of our car, or the dining room table. We change disorder to order. But, to do so, we must use energy that we have taken in in the food we eat, or, perhaps, electrical energy to run various cleaning devices. Starch, say, is an ordered food molecule, containing usable stored energy. Breaking it down changes the combinations molecules of starch into less ordered molecules of carbon dioxide and water, releasing energy in the process, and giving off wasted energy. Disorder arises through almost all natural processes, because of the unbending second law of thermodynamics. The only way to stave off that disorder is by having a source of energy to draw on. However, drawing such energy for use is related to increased disorder somewhere else. For example, the sun is gradually becoming more disordered.

One of the things that happens as a result of death is that the ability of a living thing to stave off the inexorable increase of entropy is gone. Death leads to decay. As Polkinghorne puts it:
In our present world, change and decay are built into the fabric of the universe. The processes by which genetic mutations produce new forms of life are the processes by which cells become cancerous. Death is the necessary cost of life. In fact, a theological defense of the existence of physical evil is that it is not gratuitous but the inescapable price of an evolutionary world, free to make itself within the independence its Creator has granted to it. John C. Polkinghorne, Serious Talk: Science and Religion in Dialogue. Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 1995, p. 107.

Not only does death lead to decay, but this decay is, in the practical sense, irreversible. If I had the money, and offered some famous research institution a trillion dollars if they could bring one dead maple leaf back to life, I wouldn’t lose my money. It is not humanly possible to reverse the decay in a dead organism, or part of an organism, and bring it back to life. The second law of thermodynamics makes that impossible.

The resurrection, of course, is miraculous, any way you want to look at it. It wasn’t, or isn’t, humanly possible. (That doesn’t mean that it didn’t happen!) We cannot reverse the effects of the second law on a dead leaf, much less a dead human. No wonder Paul called resurrection power “immeasurable” in Ephesians 1:19-20. God’s promise is that Christians have this power working in us.

Superstition?
The biology text I am currently using says this: “The irrational belief that actions that are not logically related to a course of events can influence its outcome is called superstition. . . . different narratives, legends, fairy tales, and epics from all around the globe exist to help people understand the world around them. These stories explain everything from birth and death to disease and healing.” (Jay Phelan, What is Life? Second Edition. New York: Freeman, 2013, pp. 5-6. Emphasis in original.) To be fair, Phelan is not particularly attacking religious belief here, but casts a wider net, including, among other things, the ritualistic actions of baseball players.

Phelan goes on to say that there are “truths” in religion that the scientific method doesn't reveal to us, and that these are based on “personal faith, traditions, and mythology.” (p. 6. Phelan put quotation marks around “truths,” implying, I think, that he’s not sure that they are truths.)

Phelan is mostly right. Beliefs that are not logically related to a course of events are sometimes believed to cause things that they don’t. I classify the belief that vaccinations cause autism as one such superstition. There are religious beliefs that seem superstitious to me, and, no doubt, many of mine seem superstitious to, say, a Buddhist.

The resurrection, I claim (and I’m not nearly the first!), is an event that there is evidence for. Of course some of my belief in the resurrection is based on personal faith, traditions, and perhaps even mythology. But I submit that there is evidence for the resurrection. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul says: 3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, [Peter] then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to over five hundred brothers at once, most of whom remain until now, but some have also fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, [the half-brother of Christ] then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all, as to the child born at the wrong time, he appeared to me also. In other words, there were hundreds of people, in Paul’s day, who had seen the living, resurrected Christ. That’s evidence.

There is other evidence for the resurrection. How else can we explain the transformation of Peter from a coward who didn’t acknowledge that he was one of Christ's followers to a bold public speaker, proclaiming the gospel? How else can we explain the growth of the church? How else can I explain how a young lady of my acquaintance, with little interest in the things of God, living in sin with her boyfriend, and their child, had her life turned around, began attending church with her boyfriend and child, reconciled with her estranged mother, and was married to the boyfriend after the morning service on Super Bowl Sunday, 2013? (I know a similar story, about another young lady who married her boyfriend after church service in another place on the next Sunday. Both new wives said that they wanted to show others a life consistent with their faith. Both are living transformed lives.) I credit the power of the resurrection for these and other stories of transformation, and claim that such changes are evidence for the reality of the resurrection. I cannot prove, to the satisfaction of a confirmed atheist, that these events, in the First Century and the Twenty-First, are logically related to the Resurrection, but I submit that they are evidence for such a logical relationship.

Thanks for reading!

The Second Law of Thermodynamics: Visual Representation

An attempt to show order and disorder. Order, above, means that entities are not randomly distributed, but that they are concentrated. That makes them easier to use -- to hunt for, or mine for, for example.

Any closed system tends to have disorder increase. Eventually, everything will be distributed randomly throughout. We say, also, that entropy has increased, in such a situation. The only way to restore order is to do work on the system, that is, to use external energy.

Thanks for looking!

Recent Internet publications on the Second Law and origins

In a recent Panda's Thumb article, P. Z. Myers dissects a statement by the late Henry Morris, founder of the modern Creation-Science movement, who argued, incorrectly, that the Second Law of Thermodynamics makes evolution impossible.

Myers refers to another article, by Jason Rodenhouse, on the same subject, but demolishing a different writer, not Morris, and without equations.

Thanks for reading.

On the second law of Thermodynamics

If anyone is up for some fairly heavy, but important, reading, how about the Second Law of Thermodynamics? As that famous authority, Martin LaBar, said in his excellent web page, attempting to explain what that law is, and why it's important, scientifically, philosophically, and theologically, "If there are any scientific laws that have universal acceptance, and universal applicability, they are the laws of thermodynamics." (See here for the Wikipedia article on those laws.)

OK, forget the author's qualifications. However, that page was written and re-written over many years, and used as an introduction to the subject for non-science college students, and I think it's pretty good. I thank God that I was able to write it.

One reason that that Law is often invoked, wrongly, is that, every now and then, someone says that evolution is impossible, because it would violate the Second Law. By the same argument, namely that the Law prohibits complex entities coming from simple ones, you could prove that whoever wrote it is equally a violation, because he/she is a complex entity, made of trillions of cells, but coming from a relatively simple fertilized egg. The Second Law does not rule out the possibility of evolution.

The Law has to do with the resurrection, too. If you wish to, read the web page. More on this later, God willing.

Thanks for reading!

The religious implications of the second law of thermodynamics

I have updated my web page on "the implications of the second law of thermodynamics."

The implications have to do with the resurrection, with human diet, and with a great deal more.

The second law of thermodynamics is one of the most important scientific laws, perhaps the most important one.

I have attempted to write the page indicated in such a way that a reasonably intelligent non-scientist can read it, and understand it. I have also attempted to include views that do not agree with my own.

Thanks for reading this.

Resurrection thoughts

The Resurrection is the central theme in every Christian sermon reported in the Acts. The Resurrection, and its consequences were the "gospel" or good news which the Christians brought: what we call the "gospels," the narratives of Our Lord's life and death, were composed later for the benefit of those who had already accepted the gospel. They were in no sense the basis of Christianity: they were written for those already converted. The miracle of the Resurrection, and the theology of that miracle, comes first: the biography comes later as a comment on it. Nothing could be more unhistorical than to pick out selected sayings of Christ from the gospels and to regard those as the datum and the rest of the New Testament as a construction upon it. The first fact in the history of Christendom is a number of people who say they have seen the Resurrection.
- C.S. Lewis, Miracles, Chapter 16 (1947)



I took this photo of a maple leaf last October. That leaf was dead. I could have taken it to any university in the world, and offered a reward of billions of dollars, or Euros, or yen, and all the resources of that university would have been unable to bring that one leaf back to life. Death is irreversible -- the final triumph of the Second Law of Thermodynamics over a living thing. But Christ was resurrected. The greatest miracle of all. He triumphed over death!

And, said Paul, that triumphant power, resurrection power, is available to believers:

16 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, 18 having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might 20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. (Ephesians 1, ESV, emphasis added.)

Blessed Easter!