December
1999
(Updated June 2005, July 07 2005;
July 24 2005)
Michael
S. Shelton
Stafford,
VA
Premise: The Second Law of Thermodynamics (SLOT) is the Silver Bullet
against the Theory of Evolution. It is,
indeed, a central stake through the philosophical heart of the atheist who must
leave God out of the picture.
The physical universe can be explained in many ways using
various mathematical relations, equations and laws. We have developed a number of mathematical relationships to
describe gravity, place objects in orbit, fly Martian explorations, and operate
submarines. We use thermodynamic laws
and relationships to build steam turbines, gasoline internal combustion
engines, and predict how much electrical current will be needed to cool a
certain-sized building each day in summer.
The same thermodynamic laws can describe the operation of
biological life. Although the operation
and life of a rabbit differs from a Ford V-8 engine, the foundational principles
of the Zeroth, First, Second and Third Laws of Thermodynamics are the
same. These Laws are easily found and
investigated by normal web search methods.
Of interest to us, however, are the First and Second Laws, particularly
the Second Law.
To build a designed device (say, a refrigerator), energy
input from the First Law must be manipulated correctly through the process of
the Second Law (SLOT) to craft the device.
We need energy, a plan, information, a sense of project, and tools to
build the device. During the process,
the overall disorder (entropy), or randomness, of the Universe increases, with
a local decrease in entropy when the refrigerator is finally assembled. In other words, the various raw materials
and components are brought together from their random, haphazard locations and
placed into a highly-specified order that gives us a useful device to store
cold water, hamburger meat, and ice cream.
We have now gone through a complete thermodynamic cycle to harness the
stored energy and raw materials. Simply
pouring / adding non-directed energy to the components with no manner of
manipulating the process won’t produce a refrigerator, or whatever you have in
mind.
As I stated in the immediately preceding paragraph, the
overall disorder (entropy), or randomness, of the Universe has increased. Although we have a finished product, the
ancillary processes used to obtain the raw materials, cut the metal, mold the
rubber trim, and charge the refrigerant are accompanied by frictional losses,
noise, and waste. Most of these
processes result in losses that cannot and will never be regained in the form
of stored energy to be used again. This
points directly to the idea that something / Someone had to have provided the
Original Sources of potential, usable energy.
Next, the idea that a plan is needed to assemble a usable device points
to a designer. For biological life,
this points to a Designer. Raw,
inorganic matter, regardless of how much it is irradiated with the sun or heat
from a thermal vent, does nothing to cause autoorganization of the matter into
the building blocks of life, and then, into the numerous proteins and cells
that comprise a living being.
The Second Law is expressed mathematically as:
dS = dQ/T Entropy change is denoted as ‘dS’ and is always
≥ 0. ‘dQ’ is
the incremental energy state change / increase
Further,
dSR = dQR/T,
where the term ‘QR’ indicates application to a reversible process -
reversible connotes we can do a process and return to the original state with
no change in entropy to the system and/or surroundings. Some parts of processes are reversible, but
not the entire process.
1.
In a reversible and closed-cycle
process, the entropy change is equal to the change in heat or energy transfer
divided by the temperature of the system or process. This temperature ‘T’ (“absolute temperature” in either degrees
Rankine or Kelvin, as applicable) is usually the temperature of the environment
that any process occurs in or exhausts into.
dQ = dE + dW, where ‘E’ represents thermal or kinetic energy and ‘W’
represents work.
2.
Entropy can be further broken down
into dS = dSe + dSi, where subscript ‘e’ is the
reversible component of the process, and subscript ‘i’ is the irreversible
component and lost forever. dSi
represents irreversible effects (friction, internal hysteresis, sound waves,
electromagnetic waves, etc.).
3.
An example is the exhaust energy
radiated from the engine of a car and through its tailpipe. Most of the combustion process is lost as
unused heat transfer, not utilized in operating the mechanical components of
the car. It is permanent and
irreversible. Another example is heat
generated by a human undergoing physical exercise. The heat is radiated, convected or conducted away and lost
forever. To replenish the lost energy,
the human must eat. The car must be
refueled
4.
Back to dS = dSe + dSi. The dSe part we recover. But it comes at a price, always accompanied
by dSi. Additionally, dSe
nearly always requires an intelligent
mechanism, a design, a plan, information, a code, to be accomplished. dSi requires no code or design,
such as the burning of a forest after a lightning strike, or the nuclear
furnace of a star. They simply
transform potential energy into kinetic energy and exhaust / transfer directly
into their surroundings randomly. To
further harness that wasted energy, a device intelligently planned and
intelligently operated must be employed.
EXAMPLE 1: A tank of water is
on a mountain peak (for the moment, let’s ignore how the water got there). The tank bursts and the water runs down to
the valley below. At the bottom, the
water remains there. If this water was
not employed to run turbines or other devices, then the process is a pure
conversion from potential energy to kinetic energy. Once all the sloshing at the bottom of the hill ceases, the
potential energy of the water is zero.
We still have the water, it has not been removed from the system, but it
has achieved a useless state. Under
these conditions, maximum entropy (randomness) has been achieved, and will
remain thus unless acted upon from outside the system. We could construct a mechanism to fully
funnel the water down a tube or chute to the bottom of the mountain, then
transport back to the top via pumps or buckets. However, this will require an intelligently designed and employed
mechanism to do so. In this case we
could have dS = dSe + dSi, where dSe
represents the entire water supply restored to the tank (miraculously repaired
somehow) and dSi is the energy lost from sloshing and friction down
the mountainside, replaced by the outside energy needed to move the water back
up to the tank.
EXAMPLE 2: A small animal
loses its food supply. It remains alone
in a very large room (large enough that suffocation is not an issue, say a
building of 150x150x1 miles, i.e., 22,500 cubic miles) sealed from the outside
and adiabatically perfect. The animal
naturally roams around, looking for food (there is none). As it starves, all its fat reserves are
consumed by the normal biomolecular mechanisms of life. Heat is generated and is radiated away from
the body. As the animal finally dies
from the lack of nutrition sources usable
by its body cells, causing organ shutdown and finally brain death, entropy will
continue to increase because the cells break down and deteriorate from
decay. Any parasite life will now work
in the decay process until they, too, die from lack of nutrition. At some point in the future, under the carefully
controlled conditions of this large room, maximum entropy will be obtained and
remain static until something from outside
the system acts upon it.
SUMMARY:
·
The
earth is not a closed system.
Thermodynamic processes are used to explain ordinary physical laws. We can choose isolated cases to study closed
systems.
·
Reasonably,
our solar system can be treated as a closed system for most ordinary
thermodynamic studies. Arbitrarily, we
could put the spherical “closed” boundary of our solar system at a two or three
light-year radius (two light years is 11.7 trillion miles (11.7 x1012)). In other words, there is no known power
source of sufficient strength, other than our sun, to add value to our solar
system’s energy resources.
·
There
is no scientific literature that I am aware of that indicates violation of any known laws of thermodynamics. In fact, atheists / evolutionists themselves
state this. (ref That Their Words May Be Used Against Them by Henry Morris).
R. B. Lindsay says: “The most
careful examination of all naturally occurring processes (i.e., those in which
external influences are not allowed to intervene) has only served to confirm
our confidence in the inexorable over-all increase in the entropy of the
universe” (“Entropy Consumption and
Values in Physical Science,” American
Scientist, Vol. 47, September 1959,
p. 379)
·
Within
a closed system, there are subsystems that can gain complexity spontaneously,
provided there is a greater loss of complexity in another interlocking
system. The overall change is then a
complexity loss in line with the dictates of the second law. “Beyond
the Cosmos” by Dr. Hugh Ross, using Einstein’s relativity equations, string
theory, the hot Big Bang theory model, shows that our universe by necessity is
a closed system (the reader will note that until
recently I was neutral in the debate of Young Earth vs Old Earth Creationists –
citing “Beyond the Cosmos” is not necessarily an endorsement of Old Earth
Creation research and conclusions. But
after years of struggling / searching for the best
approach, either Old Earth or Young Earth Creation, I have finally concluded
that the proper Biblical and Scientific agreement and approach is that of Young
Earth Creation. This includes the
notion that the Hot Big-Bang Model is not congruent with the Creation account
cited in the Book of Genesis). Our universe, and neither our
solar system, is not receiving any additional energy from without. The COBE satellite in 1993 detected a
uniform background radiation signature of the universe, with a temp of about 3
degrees R, which was extremely close to predictions. So, it seems we safely can call the universe closed (at least for
now).
“….in any isolated system (that is, a system from which all
external sources of energy are shut off), the energy of the system is conserved
in quantity but is continually being degraded in quality as long as any energy
change is taking place in the system. Some of the available energy is always
dissipated in nonrecoverable friction or heat energy. Since all activities of
nature (including biological activities) involve such energy transfers, there
must be an ever-decreasing supply of usable energy for maintaining all natural
processes in the universe as a whole.”
[“Science And The Bible,” ‘Chapter 1
Science in the Bible, The Basic Laws of Science’ by Henry M. Morris, revised
and updated, (MOODY PRESS, Chicago), “That Their Words May Be Used Against Them,”
hardback and CD-ROM] {Note:
Dr. Henry M. Morris is founder and President Emeritus of the Institute
for Creation Research, an engineer, and former Department Head of the
Mechanical Engineering Department at Virginia Tech - MSS} (again, the reader will note that in the debate of Young
Earth vs Old Earth Creationists, I now very firmly side with the Young Earth
Creationists camp – citing “Science And
The Bible” and “That Their Words May Be Used Against Them” is not
necessarily an endorsement of all Young Earth Creation research and
conclusions, for there are some disagreements and incomplete models)
·
We
have a battle primarily of theological ideologies:
“Science doesn’t “prove facts,” it
only offers reasonable explanations that fit with the evidence.” Ariex,
a former debate opponent
“The heart cannot embrace what the
mind cannot comprehend.” Hank Hanegraaff
“The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (I Corinthians 2:14, NIV)
Commentary on Dr. Allan Harvey's Second Law of Thermo