SCIENTISTS SPEAK ABOUT THE LAWS OF NATURE - 1
Hear what scientists have to say about laws which govern our world and the universe. Evolutionary theory is a myth. God created everything; the evidence clearly points to it. Nothing else can explain the mountain of evidence. This is science vs. evolution—a Creation-Evolution Encyclopedia, brought to you by Creation Science Facts.
CONTENTS: Scientists Speak about the Laws of Nature - 1
Introduction - Some underlying questions
The First Law of Thermodynamics - Energy cannot be created nor destroyed
The Second Law of Thermodynamics - Everything is running down and going to pieces
Entropy - Unusable energy keeps increasing
The Second Law Applies to Open Systems - There are no exceptions to what is included
This material is excerpted from the book, LAWS
OF NATURE VS. EVOLUTION. An asterisk ( * ) by a name indicates
that person is not known to be a creationist. Of over 4,000 quotations
in the books this Encyclopedia
is based on, only 164 statements are by creationists.
You will have a better understanding of the following
statements by scientists if you will also read the web page,
Laws of Nature vs. Evolution.
INTRODUCTION
Some underlying questions.
"I am not satisfied that Darwin proved his point or that his influence in scientific and public thinking has been beneficial . . the success of Darwinism was accomplished by a decline in scientific integrity."—*W.R. Thompson, Introduction to *Charles Darwin's, Origin of the Species.
"This general tendency to eliminate, by means of unverifiable speculations, the limits of the categories Nature presents to us is the inheritance of biology from The Origin of the Species. To establish the continuity required by theory, historical arguments are invoked, even though historical evidence is lacking. Thus are engendered those fragile towers of hypothesis based on hypothesis, where fact and fiction intermingle in an inextricable confusion."—*W.R. Thompson, "Introduction," to Everyman's Library issue of *Charles Darwin's, Origin of Species.
"The naive view implies that the universe suddenly came into existence and found a complete system of physical laws waiting to be obeyed . . Actually it seems more natural to suppose that the physical universe and the laws of physics are inter-dependent."—*W.H. McCrea, "Cosmology after Half a Century," Science, Vol. 160, June 1968, p. 1297.
"Even if one day we find our knowledge of the basic laws concerning inanimate nature to be complete, this would not mean that we had "explained" all of inanimate nature. All we should have done is to show that all the complex phenomena of our experience are derived from some simple basic laws. But how to explain the laws themselves?"—*R.E. Peieris, The Laws of Nature (1956), p. 240.
THE FIRST LAW OF THERMODYNAMICS
Energy cannot be created nor destroyed.
"The Law of Energy Conservation—`Energy can be converted from one form into another, but can neither be created no destroyed,'—is the most important and best-proved law in science.
"The First Law of Thermodynamics states that the total amount of energy in the universe, or in any isolated part of it, remains constant. It further states that although energy (or its mass equivalent) can change form, it is not now being created or destroyed. Countless experiments have verified this. A corollary of the First Law is that natural processes cannot create energy. Consequently, energy must have been created in the past by some agency or power outside and independent of the natural universe. Furthermore, if natural processes cannot produce the relatively simple inorganic portion of the universe, then it is even less likely that natural processes can explain the much more complex organic (living) portion of the universe."—Walter T. Brown, In the Beginning (1989), p. 12.
"The first law is considered to be the most powerful and most fundamental generalization about the universe that scientists have ever been able to make."—Isaac Asimov, "In the Game of Energy and Thermodynamics You Can't Even Break Even," in Journal of Smithsonian Institute, June 1970. p. 6.
"The two laws of thermodynamics are, I suppose, accepted by physicists as perhaps the most secure generalizations from experience that we have. The physicist does not hesitate to apply the two laws to any concrete physical situation in the confidence that nature will not let him down."—*P.W. Bridgman, "Reflections on Thermodynamics," American Scientist, October 1953, p. 549.
THE SECOND LAW OF THERMODYNAMICS
Everything is running down and going to pieces.
"In its most modern forms, the Second Law is considered to have an extremely wide range of validity. It is a remarkable illustration of the ranging power of the human intellect that a principle first detected in connection with the clumsy puffing of a steam engine should be found to apply to the whole world, and even to the whole cosmic universe."—*A.R. Ubbelohde, Man and Energy (1955), p. 146.
"The second law of thermodynamics predicts that a system left to itself will, in the course of time, go toward greater disorder."—*Harold Blum, Time's Arrow and Evolution (1968), p. 201.
"It is a very broad and very general law, and because its applications are so varied it may be stated in a great variety of ways."—*E.S. Greene, Principles of Physics (1962), p. 310.
"1. Classical Thermodynamics: The energy available for useful work in a functioning system tends to decrease, even though the total energy remains constant.
"2. Statistical Thermodynamics: The organized complexity (order) of a structured system tends to become disorganized and random (disorder).
"3. Informational Thermodynamics: The information conveyed by a communicating system tends to become distorted and incomplete."—Henry Morris and Gary Parker, What Is Creation Science? (1987), p. 199.
"To their credit, there are a few evolutionists (though apparently very few) who recognize the critical nature of the problem [of the Second Law] and who are trying to solve it."—*Ilya Prigogine, Gregoire Nicolis, and Agnes Babloyants, "Thermodynamics of Evolution," Physics Today, Vol. 25, November 1972, pp. 23-28.
ENTROPY
Unusable energy keeps increasing.
"What the Second Law tells us, then, is that in the great game of the universe, we not only cannot win; we cannot even break even!
"In any physical change that takes place by itself the entropy always increases (entropy is "a measure of the quantity of energy not capable of conversion into work)."—*Issac Asimov, "In the Game of Energy and Thermodynamics You Can't Even Break Even," Journal of Smithsonian Institutes, June 1970, p. 8.
"Increase in entropy means a transition from a more orderly state to a less orderly state . . In any naturally occurring process, the tendency is for all systems to proceed from order to disorder."—R.B. Lindsay, "Entropy Consumption and Values in Physical Science," American Scientist, September 1959, p. 82.
"Man has long been aware that his world has a tendency to fall apart. Tools wear out, fishing nets need repair, roofs leak, iron rusts, wood decays, loved ones sicken and die . . We instinctively resent the decay of orderly systems such as the living organisms and work to restore such systems to their former or even higher level of organization."—*V.R. Potter, "Society and Science," in Science, November 20, 1964, p. 1018.
"There is a general natural tendency of all observed systems to go from order to disorder, reflection dissipation of energy available for future transformation—the law of increasing entropy."—R.B. Kindsay: "Physics—To What Extent Is it Deterministic?" in American Scientist, Vol. 156 (1973), p. 100.
"The entropy principle will preside as the ruling paradigm over the next period of history. Albert Einstein said that it is the premier law of all science; Sir Arthur Eddington referred to it as the supreme metaphysical law of the entire universe."—*Jeremy Rifkin, Entropy: A New World View (1980), p. 6.
"There is a general natural tendency of all observed systems to go from order to disorder, reflecting dissipation of energy available for future transformation—the law of increasing entropy."—*R.R. Kindsay, "Physics—To What Extent Is it Deterministic?" in American Scientist, 56 (1968), p. 100.
THE SECOND LAW INCLUDES OPEN SYSTEMS
There are no exceptions to what is included.
"Ordinarily the second law is stated for isolated systems, but the second law applies equally well to open systems."—*John Ross, Chemical Engineering News, July 7, 1980, p. 40 [Harvard University researcher].
"The cosmological arrow generates randomness or disorder, whereas the evolutionary arrow generates complexity. A fully reductionist theory of evolution must demonstrate that the evolutionary arrow can be derived from the cosmological arrow."—*Jeffrey S. Wicken, "The Generation of Complexity in Evolution: A Thermodynamic and Information-Theoretical Discussion," in Journal of Theoretical Biology (1979), p. 349.
"Let us consider the earth and its atmosphere as an open system which is receiving energy from the sun. Since energy is flowing into the system, . . there is a positive entropy flow also going into the system. If we use the known energy flux from the sun, we can estimate the rate of entropy increase on the earth due to incoming solar energy alone. The result turns out to be about 140 trillion calories per degree Kelvin per second. This is a large flow of entropy—but it is in the wrong direction to produce evolution. Evolutionists want the sun's energy to produce greater and greater order upon the earth; this requires that entropy be decreasing in our open system. But solar energy does just the opposite; it increases the earth's entropy! . .
"There is no evidence that temporal or local violations of the law exist. A well-known physicist wrote, concerning exceptions to the second law:
"In fact, no violation can be brought about in this case, nor with any of the ingenious and often subtle engines which have been devised with the object of circumventing the law. Moreover, the consequences of the law are so unfailingly verified by experiment that it has come to be regarded as among the most firmly established of all the laws of nature [A.B. Pippard, Elements of Classical Thermodynamics (1957), p. 30]."—D. Russell Humphreys, "Using the Second Law More Effectively," in Creation Research Society Quarterly, March 1978, pp. 209-210. [Humphreys' article includes mathematical calculations and diagrams in support of the above statements.]
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
To the NEXT PAGE to conclude what you are now reading (Scientists Speak about the Laws of Nature - Part 2 of 2)