Today, we are dealing with a topic that may scare some people. That topic is thermodynamics. It's a big word, but it is really not that difficult, particularly in the areas we are going to be talking about. While a really deep scientific dive into this topic can get highly mathematical and complicated, here we are going to keep it simple enough to understand even without a physics degree.
One of the issues that has frequently been raised against both evolution and its counterpart, the naturalistic origin of life called abiogenesis, is that the laws of thermodynamics present a problem for these ideas, particularly the second law. After all, they require a reduction of entropy that goes contrary to the natural tendencies expected from the second law.
Now, where many creationists go wrong is in claiming that the second law prevents a decrease in entropy. In such cases, evolutionists are right to point out that such a guaranteed increase in entropy only applies to a closed system, and while this is true to a point, the response acts as if all you need is to apply energy to a system, and it magically decreases its entropy. This is not true because how the application of energy affects entropy depends upon how it is applied to a given system. As a result, neither perspective is completely accurate.
What is entropy?
Entropy is commonly associated with disorder. Now it is true that they are directly associated, but they're not the same thing. Both concepts are related in that they are associated directly with the number of equivalent states of a system. However, disorder does not change with the size of the system, while entropy does. This is because if you change the size of the system, you change the number of equivalent states that it has, without necessarily changing its level of disorder. For example, if you have one coin sitting heads up on a table, it has only one equivalent state. If you add a second coin, you will now have two equivalent states, but you are really not increasing the amount of disorder; you simply have increased the size of the system.
What is important to remember is that entropy is related to disorder through the number of equivalent states that a system has. They are not the same, but they are sufficiently related that they provide information about each other. This is important when trying to understand what is going on when energy is applied to a system.
Entropy of Energy.
The entropy of energy is simply the number of equivalent states that energy can have, and it is no different than that of the systems to which it is applied. High entropy energy would include such things as heat, while low entropy energy would include the forces that occur between atoms and molecules.
The difference is that heat tends to be random in nature, that is, the molecules are moving around and bouncing off of each other without any significant guiding force. This is particularly true as an object gets hotter, in that the motion becomes faster. On the other hand, forces between atoms and molecules tend to be based on the geometric structure of the electrons surrounding the nucleus of an atom. This tends to have an organizing aspect to it because of its geometry. This is the key to understanding the third law of thermodynamics.
The Application of Energy.
When energy is applied to a system, it can either be in a random fashion or an organized fashion. If the energy is naturally high in entropy and chaotic, it will tend to be applied randomly. And if there is an organization to its structure, that organization, such as geometry, will tend to guide how it is applied to a system.
However, the application of energy can also be redirected in either direction depending upon how it is applied. For example, construction work can take naturally high entropy heat energy and control its application in an ordered manner to do work. On the flip side, the same amount of heat energy can be overly pressurized to create a destructive bomb. The difference is the way the energy is applied to the system.
The Effect of Applied Energy on Entropy.
It turns out that when energy is applied to a system, it tends to bring that system to the same number of equivalent states as itself. The effect of this is that when energy is applied to a system with more equivalent states, it ends up increasing the entropy of the system. On the other hand, if the energy is applied with fewer equivalent states than the system, then it reduces the entropy of the system.
This is precisely why the same amount of energy can be both constructive and destructive. If you have energy applied to a system in a low-entropy manner, such as construction work, the entropy of the system will be reduced as the pieces are assembled. If you've ever seen demolition work, you will notice that they either use explosives or simply use something like a wrecking ball. That is going to have way more equivalent states in how it applies energy to the building than the part of the building that it is hitting.
The Second Law of Thermodynamics.
The Second Law of Thermodynamics states that entropy naturally tends to increase. Now this happens because heat energy is extremely random, and when a system's own heat energy acts on it, unless the system is already at maximum entropy, that heat energy will increase the entropy of the system.
A common claim made by evolutionists is that the Second Law of Thermodynamics only applies to closed systems. They will often try to imply that simply adding energy to a system magically increases the entropy of that system. This is not the case.
The simple fact of the matter is that as long as the energy applied to a system has greater entropy than that system, the system's entropy will increase. The Second Law of Thermodynamics does not imply that entropy cannot be decreased, only that the general natural trend is towards increasing entropy. The problem is that evolutionists seem to think that all they need to do is throw energy at the second law of thermodynamics, and it magically goes away.
The Third Law of Thermodynamics.
The Third Law of Thermodynamics states that as the temperature of a system approaches absolute zero, its entropy approaches its minimum, and that at absolute zero, there would be no change in entropy. Now, absolute zero temperature is impossible to reach in practice, simply because it is impossible to remove all the heat energy from a system. One reason for this is the fact that heat tends to flow from hotter to colder, and at absolute zero, there is nothing colder.
The reduction in entropy results from the fact that, as molecular motion slows, the highly geometric forces between molecules and atoms tend to take over. This means that the number of equivalent states for the system is going to go down, and it will become more organized. However, it needs to be noted that not only are such temperatures way too cold for life, but the reduction in entropy is nowhere near great enough. This is because the type and degree of organized complexity necessary for life does not result from the forces between atoms and molecules, nor is it driven by chemistry.
Law 1.5 of Thermodynamics.
Law 1.5 is a relatively new principle first published in 2012. It deals entirely with the effect on entropy that the application of energy has on a system. It deserves a place among the laws of thermodynamics because not only does it fill an explanatory gap by dealing with how the application of energy affects entropy, but it also explains how the second and third laws work.
Now, it is true that this principle is not an official law of thermodynamics, but that is not the point of this label. The point is to demonstrate that it deserves a place on the list. Not only does it explain things that none of the four official laws do, but it also explains how the second and third laws work. This is a critical point.
Conclusion
When energy is applied to a system which way the system's entropy goes depends upon how the energy is applied. When energy is applied to a system, it tends to move the number of equivalent states of that system towards that of the applied energy. This principle is the key to understanding what happens during an application of energy. Heat is naturally high entropy and therefore, under most conditions, will increase the entropy of the system to which it is being applied, but it can be directed, so it is being applied in a much lower entropy manner.
The number one reason that this is a problem for both abiogenesis and universal common descent is that the available energy behind both alleged processes is high entropy. In a prebiotic world, all of the energy, sunlight, radiation, and even chemical energy would all be applied in ways far greater than those of a living cell. They would each have a tendency to destroy anything that came close to becoming a living cell but fell short.
---------------------
The Five Laws of Thermodynamics: Unlocking the Secrets of Energy, Entropy, and the Universe
Kindle: https://amzn.to/48lgvj8
Paperback: https://amzn.to/41XTe3a
