Order-Disorder Is Not Evidence For God
Image credits belong to: geralt | Pixabay
In 1973, Henry M. Morris argued that evolution is impossible because of the universal law of entropy and the universe's basic stability that opposes evolution [1].
The National Center for Science Education has criticized the creationist argument that evolution is impossible without a decrease in entropy and has criticized Dr. Morris' misquoting of Isaac Asimov [2].
To dismantle the Institute for Creation Research's mischaracterization of science, let us look at what Dr. Morris wants us to believe from his writings.
Everything in the universe essentially operates in "energy conversions" with thermodynamics' laws as the foundation [1].
Henry M. Morris stole Isaac Asimov's words saying that "the total quantity of energy in the universe is constant" and that "no one knows why energy is conserved" when describing the fact that energy can be neither created nor destroyed [1].
Morris first states that the evolutionist never seeks a source of the conserved energy. Morris then assumes that science cannot give us the answer, so he can lead us to the next assumption that only God can create energy [1].
As the second law of thermodynamics involves "directional change" and "not upward change," he asserts it must demolish the theory of evolution. "For every naturally occurring transformation of energy is accompanied, somewhere, by a loss in the availability of energy for the future performance of work" [1].
The immutable direction of heat is an example of entropy switching energy from a higher to a lower level, at which it still exists but no longer works. Heat's immutable direction is exemplified in its transition from something hot to something cold [1].
"No process can be 100% efficient, with all of the available energy converted into work." Hence Morris says, "a self-contained perpetual motion machine is an impossibility," which appears to me like a fancy way of saying the universe cannot exist and function without divine guidance. By mentioning efficiency, it appears to me he is talking about the best productivity that minimizes wasted effort. For Morris, the best productivity is lacking if some energy is used to defeat friction and some is radiated and disseminated into space [1].
As everything uniformly adopts low temperature and heat energy, the universe has no more work to conduct on its own accord and eventually culminates into heat death. If the universe is constantly decreasing in forward time, it must be progressively increasing in backward time, leading us to a beginning that could not have initiated nor created itself. Therefore, Yahweh of the Bible must be responsible for the creation, according to how I think Morris wants us to assume [1].
The NCSE tells us that the "physical significance" of entropy has eluded people since it was first defined and has been greatly elusive in popular science. Creationists take advantage of that [2].
They take advantage of the intuitive idea that energy cannot be generated "out of nowhere." Exothermic reactions cannot liberate more energy than they expend, as well. It is impossible to have a series of reactions going forward and backward. The flow of energy is contingent upon whether energy is absorbed or released. The bond-breaking and bond-formations are immutable among all chemical and physical changes. The numerical values in heat transference are identical in both directions during any change. Heat is the conversion of potential energy caused by the formation of ionic or covalent bonds. The enthalpy change or heat of reaction is the difference between the absorption of heat energy in bond-breaking and the liberation of heat energy during bond formation. The bond dissociation energy (amount of energy needed to break a bond and separate atoms) measures the covalence strength in a bond. The chemical bond between the atoms or ions increases stability as the bond dissociation energy increases [3].
However, creationists emphasize too much about entropy being solely about the disorder. They have ignored the organization, richness of information, and energy availability that can still exist with increasing entropy. Have you ever heard of negentropy or negative entropy? This is about the difference between the maximum amount of entropy that can be held and the amount that is actually held in a system. This measures the amount of order, information, equilibrium, and energy availability after work has been done. It also measures the improbability of a system being in a given state. Note that the shortage does not mean that stuff is totally missing [2].
It appears that the immutable direction of heat flow is not always guaranteed, as a 2019 Nature report contradicts the assumption:
"Heat spontaneously flows from hot to cold in standard thermodynamics. However, the latter theory presupposes the absence of initial correlations between interacting systems. We here experimentally demonstrate the reversal of heat flow for two quantum correlated spins-1/2, initially prepared in local thermal states at different effective temperatures, employing a Nuclear Magnetic Resonance setup. We observe a spontaneous energy flow from the cold to the hot system. This process is enabled by a trade off between correlations and entropy that we quantify with information-theoretical quantities. These results highlight the subtle interplay of quantum mechanics, thermodynamics and information theory. They further provide a mechanism to control heat on the microscale" [4].
If any kind of creator or God were intimately and diligently involved with these chemical reactions, we should not be able to observe spontaneous processes. Such processes, by definition, are unaffected by any external guidance after being initiated. Take note that being spontaneous in chemistry is different from how we colloquially say it to mean "random." Spontaneous reactions typically include lower energy states. Spontaneity is exemplified in water moving down a hill that liberates its stored (potential) energy and produces a more stable position [3]. A bonfire, which is exothermic, is also spontaneous, as it consists of mainly gases such as carbon dioxide and water vapor. The decrease in energy combined with the increase in entropy tells us that these combustion reactions are spontaneous [5].
Disorder increases in the combusting log that spontaneously converts large, complex molecules like lignin and cellulose into carbon dioxide and water. Contrary to the creationistic idea that irreversibility always occurs throughout the entire universe, there is a reverse (converting carbon dioxide and water back into cellulose) in photosynthesis that cannot occur without the presence of sunlight. The spontaneity also occurs in our bodies and other living organisms that must guzzle and gobble up large, complex molecules as food and break them down into smaller molecules (carbon dioxide, water, etc.). Spontaneity is determined by the release of free energy with a negative value for ΔG. This tells us whether a chemical reaction will occur [3].
Creationists may not want to admit that there is a lot of spontaneity in our universe. The collision of atoms and molecules and bond-breaking and bond-formation must take place for chemical reactions to occur. Connections cannot be made between clashing particles without the right orientations. The right orientations are not guaranteed, even with adequate activation energy. For instance, in ozone reactions (O3) with nitric oxide (NO), the nitrogen atom of NO must hit a terminal oxygen atom of O3 to yield oxygen (O2) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2). Other things that can prevent chemical reactions are improper angles, a hit on the central oxygen atom in the ozone, or a hit between two oxygen atoms. Reactant particles could have insufficient speed, making collisions not violent enough to overpower the force between the electrons and pull them apart [6] [7].
Since there can be a frequent failure of the right orientations for allowing chemical reactions, it is hard to envision a creator/god acting as an outside influencer. With a creator/god, there would be no energy barrier acting as an obstacle to productive collisions.
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Works cited:
[1] https://www.icr.org/article/evolution-thermodynamics-entropy/
[2] https://ncse.ngo/creationist-misunderstanding-misrepresentation-and-misuse-second-law-thermodynamics
[3] https://www.amazon.com/Fundamentals-General-Organic-Biological-Chemistry/dp/0134218329
[4] https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-10333-7
[6] https://courses.lumenlearning.com/introchem/chapter/the-collision-theory/