If you spill a glass of water on top of the table, what happens to it? Does it stay in the shape of the glass ready for you to drink? Does it flow downward to the floor? If it gets to a rug, does it soak into that rug? Can you get all of that water back into the same order for use that it was in before? The fact is that the spill caused the water to go from an ordered state to a more random state. If that was all the water you had, you would have less in usable form. Though none of the water was destroyed, its potential for use became more limited through this action. But what does that have to do with the subject we have been examining about whether this universe just evolved into its present form or was created by God?
Though not an exact parallel, the situation we have described is comparable to the law of increasing entropy as demonstrated in the world around us. In the American Scientist, R.B. Lindsay gave the following definition:
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 ("Physics - To What Extent Is It Deterministic," V. 56, Summer 1968, p. 100).
Compare that scientific, observable, and demonstrable law to Julian Huxley's classic definition of the theory of evolution which follows:
Evolution in the extended sense can be defined as a directional and essentially irreversible process occurring in time, which in its course gives rise to an increase of variety and an increasingly high level of organization in its products. Our present knowledge indeed forces us to view that the whole of reality is evolution -- a single process of self-transformation (Huxley, What Is Man?, "Evolution and Genetics," p. 278).
It is obvious that both of those statements cannot be true. Entropy and evolution are mutually exclusive. But which is true? What does the evidence suggest? We have noted over the past few weeks that the evidence for the general theory of evolution fails to prove the theory. In fact, the whole theory rests on unproven and unprovable assumptions. What is the evidence to suggest that entropy is a provable fact?
The principle of entropy is the fundamental point of the Second Law of Thermodynamics. This law is accepted as universal, foundational, and certain in the scientific realm. When taking this law together with the First Law of Thermodynamics, there is a strong case to be made against the general theory of evolution.
The First Law suggests that everything which exists in the universe is some form of energy and that everything that happens is some form of energy conversion. It further holds that energy may be transferred from one place to another or transformed from one form to another, but it can neither be created nor destroyed. Thus, the energy in our universe is constant. Isaac Asimov spoke in more detail regarding the First Law when he explained it as follows:
To express all this, we can say: "Energy can be transferred from one place to another, or transformed from one place to another, but it can be neither created nor destroyed." Or we can put it another way: "The total quantity of energy in the universe is constant." When the quantity of something does not change, we say that it is conserved. The two statements given above, then, are two ways of expressing "the law of conservation of energy." This law is considered the most powerful and most fundamental generalization about the universe that scientists have ever been able to make (Smithsonian Institute Journal, June 1970, p. 6).
In commenting on this law, Asimov continued by saying, "No one knows why energy is conserved," but he forcefully affirms that principle as a fact. The Bible gives a reasonable explanation for this fact.
The first chapter of Genesis presents God as the origin of all things in the universe (energy included). The next chapter begins by declaring that God "rested from all His work which He created and made" (2:3). God is not adding to that creation now, but is "upholding all things" (Heb. 1:3). Thus, we can say with the Bible, "I know that whatever God does, it shall be forever. Nothing can be added to it, and nothing can be taken from it" (Eccl. 3:14). The Bible believer finds himself is perfect harmony with the facts of science in this realm because the Bible affirms these facts and their cause.
The Second Law puts a death nail in the evolutionary explanation for the universe. It says that as energy conversions take place through which all things happen in the universe, they are accompanied by "a loss in the availability of energy for future performance of work." Thus, for work to be done, the available energy has to flow from a higher level to a lower level, just like the water spilled from the glass. When it reaches that lower level, the energy still exists, but it is no longer capable of doing work.
This fact is also called entropy. Since we still have energy available for work, the process has not reached its end when all energy will be randomly arranged and unavailable for work. However, what is the most basic premise of the general theory of evolution? It contends that matter is eternal! Yet, if matter was eternal, we would have already reached a state of total entropy where no energy is available for work, but where all has come to a random state of disorder. Thus, the universe has not always existed. It had a beginning. The general theory of evolution cannot explain why total entropy does not exist.
The evolutionists sometimes try to obscure the point by saying that our planet is not a closed system, thus, the energy is coming into our planet from another part of the universe where entropy is more pronounced. Of course, they have no evidence for this assertion, but they merely assume it to be true as is done with so many other parts of their theory. The problem, however, is that their answer is no real answer to the problem. The universe as a whole is by definition a closed system wherein the First and Second Laws apply. Thus, if our universe as a whole is eternal as the evolutionists must conclude, the whole universe (not just one or more parts of it) ought to have reached the state of total entropy. The facts simply do not support the general theory of evolution.
When the fact of entropy is applied to the mechanics of the general theory of evolution, we see further problems with the theory. That theory demands that all forms have gone from a less orderly state to a more orderly state. Entropy states that the opposite is observable in "all observed systems." Isaac Asimov puts it in perspective as follows:
Another way of stating the Second Law then is: "The universe is constantly getting more disorderly!" Viewed that way, we can see the Second Law all about us. We have to work hard to straighten a room, but left to itself it becomes messy again very quickly and very easily. Even if we never enter it, it becomes dusty and musty. How difficult to maintain houses, and machinery, and our own bodies in perfect working order; how easy to let them deteriorate. In fact, all we have to do is nothing, and everything deteriorates, collapses, breaks down, wears out, all by itself and that is what the Second Law is all about (Smithsonian Institute Journal, June 1970 p. 10).
The Bible is in harmony with the known laws of science. However, the general theory of evolution stands opposed to them in this case. Which is more believable: "In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth" OR "the heavens and earth are merely the result of chance as all things became more ordered as the result of a big bang"? Young people, do not be ashamed of your faith. The truth of God is more credible than the theories of man!