Need some understanding

Richard Masoner (richardm@cd.com)
Fri, 27 Sep 1996 17:15:06 -0500 (CDT)



> I am just writing to see if anyone on the list can help me understand a
> certain subject.  It is the 2nd Law Of Thermodynamics.  I heard a preacher
> speak on this law and related it to the Bible and God.  I am a Mechanical

In summary, a closed system will move to entropy, from order to chaos.
You must have an external energy source for things to become ordered.
For example, if you leave a house and don't maintain it, after awhile
it will fall apart.

This law is used by Christians as an argument against abiogenesis and
evolution.  How did a random soup of chemicals become ordered at
suddenly become life?  Furthermore, why is there progressively more
order from these simple, virus-like organisms to the complex
multicellular organisms we have today?

A classic analogy: a non-theistic view of life coming to existence is
akin to believing a 747 is the result of a tornado hitting a junkyard.

The standard rebuttal is "The 2nd Law of Thermodynamics only applies to
*CLOSED* systems.  And the earth is not a closed system: it has the sun
supplying great amounts of energy!"

So I guess if you drop a hydrogen-bomb on the junkyard, *that* will
yield you a 747.  Right.  Or, a more apt analogy: drop a million H-
bombs on a million junk-yards for a million years, *then* you'll get
your 747.  I remain unconvinced of that.

Richard Masoner