Mitchell’s Journey

Part 6 of 7

Doubts increased for Mitchell during a class study of entropy. Known as the Second Law of Thermodynamics it plainly says that left to itself everything deteriorates or randomizes. What was organized or well-ordered becomes disordered. Without influence from outside itself the entity degenerates. The professor credited the sun with being the outside energy source to not only prevent that for our planet but even bring about a reversal of the effect.

Mitchell decided to hear Sam’s version of how entropy plays into this question. Sam was glad to reply.

“We battle entropy every time we try to maintain something in working order. When our bodies age due to genetic entropy we try to prolong the inevitable. Nothing can produce new and improved versions all by itself. We have frequently heard comments in the media of how “mother nature developed this” or how a particular animal took “millions of years to develop” whatever. Who is “mother nature” and what animal can redesign itself? The Second Law of Thermodynamics is the opposite of what evolution requires. It is evolution not creation that is in conflict with science here.

There are those who rightfully point out that it is only in a closed system that this happens. An open system can receive energy from outside itself and thereby increase in complexity as that outside source loses energy. They would say the sun provides that for our planet, thereby over-riding entropy. However, the sun is only part of the picture. For plants to grow and reproduce the whole process of photosynthesis, osmosis, reproduction and nutrient absorption from the soil has to already exist. The water cycle, the carbon dioxide cycle and a myriad of other life-sustaining processes have to exist before the sun can be of any help. Without them the sun is more likely to kill life and produce a Sahara Desert.

Not only that, how did the sun happen to be just the right distance from earth for life to be supported, and the earth’s axis tilted just right to allow for seasons and the atmosphere composed of just the right combination of gases and the nature of water be just right for the water cycle to function? These and many other demands make the sun a completely untenable option for negating entropy all by itself. The only outside energy force that could bring about such changes is the Creator.”

A troubled Mitchell went home to think about what had just been said.

(to be concluded next week)

The love of God and the truth – He proclaims is what can make improvements,

 

 

Henry Wiebe