When the Strong Man Stoops
September 3, 2008Entropy is enevitable. Objects that are full of life eventually die and ultimately decay. The sun and the light and the moon and the stars will one day grow dark.
The inhabitants of every home will eventually grow aged with trembling hands and even the strongest of men will stoop. The very windows through which we peer will grow clouded and opaque with time. Doors will be closed and boarded up. In their twilight years once-proud men will become scared of famaliar places—lacking desire (ambition, vision, motivation).
In science this is called “Entropy”—energy burned up, order to chaos, fires die, the “Second Law of Thermodynamics.” In life this is called “living without hope,” and it is the net result of a life lived without much thought for the Creator and without a healthy fear of God, it is the net result of a life lived for self without much consideration for godliness.
Thus we are advised to remember our Creator in the days of our youth. But why, if the future seems dim? Because we who fear God in the days of our youth will more likely put our hope in God in the days of trouble. And in our days of trouble we will not forget our purpose in life (the chief end of man is to fear God and obey his commands) and we will discover a glimmer of hope in twilight’s darkness (an eternal home with God).
See Ecclesaistes 12 for deeper meditation on this fateful condition of mankind. I read this chapter in my personal devotions tonight and just found it to be a powerful passage of scriptures. This is my paraphrase.
Mankind created God to help us over our fear of entropy.
Dear Manupmen: If entropy is real, and it is, then the universe cannot be eternal. Therefore there must be a beginning, and everything that has a beginning must have a Beginner–the Greeks called Him the unmoved Mover or the uncaused First Cause. If the universe was eternally old, then all the energy in the universe would already be burned up (see entropy and Second Law). But it’s not thus we once again have a beginning and a need for a Beginner. Therefore, the creatures could not have created the Creator, the Creator must have created the creatures.
Entropy does not apply to the system, only to the parts. The system does not lose energy, only individual parts exchange energy. The system itself, the universe, does not run down, it simply has an energy flow among its component parts. So a tree dies, but its energy gets used for something else. The energy does not disappear, it gets reallocated.
Your misunderstanding of entropy is common.
I don’t misunderstand the issue. In fact I’m often perplexed that Theists misuse entropy to discredit evolution. It does not discredit evolution, but it essentually supports the idea of a beginning–just as the big ban supports the idea of a beginning. I simply used the comman understanding of Entropy as a metaphor for the human condition–I was using science as a philosophic metaphor.
When you talk about “parts” what you might be referring to are “open” and “closed” parts or “systems.” It is true that open systems send a receive fuel/energy back and forth. In a belief system that does not accept the fact of God then nature must therefore be a closed system and therefore would eventually run out of fuel.
While I do believe that nature is a closed system, I believe there is something outside of nature that gives it the necessary fuel to continue eternally–something that would be necessarily supernatural, something necessarily superpowerful, and I believe there is evidence to support that it is superintelligent as well.
For your point to stand true the universe must be an open system and must have something outside of the system to allocate energy.
For instance, if I fill up my car with gasoline (by itself my car is a closed system), it will run out of fuel. But if I am able to refuel my car, then with me it is an open system. But I am inside of a closed system, the universe. Now according to those who claim to know, the world will eventually run out of oil, then out of other forms of non-renewable energy, then the planet will begin to die and will run out of renewable forms of energy…, take that far enough and the universe eventually runs out of fuel–unless something outside of it continues to impute energy/fuel into the system.
If nature is the only system (per naturalistic philosophy) then it is “by nature” a closed system. Something outside of nature must then impute energy into the system, something supernatural and superpowerful.
What is that energy source, in your opinion?
I believe it is God.
Deep thoughts…I had been slacking on my reading and now I must catch up…
I think manupin was given a TKO, perhaps had he / she the inner fortitude afforded those with a faith beyond their own palsied ablities…in the end it was sadly apparent that manupin wasn’t a daisy after all…
Nature does not require “outside” energy from a giant invisible man. Lightning flying from the fingers of a holy spook is simply not a reasonable explanation for the energy exchange in nature.
Dear Manupmen:
Perhaps you don’t understand Entropy and especially the Second Law of Thermodynamics after all.
You are correct, nature does not require “outside” energy to exist, it requires “outside” energy to exist eternally. A “closed system” will eventually die—a small closed system could take years to die, a massive closed system could take aeons to die—but all closed systems eventually die (see 2nd Law of Thermodynamics). This is a mathmatical/scientific law, it’s not really open for debate, at least for those who know what they’re talking about.
Now think clearly here…
If the Universe has been around forever then it would have already run out of energy/fuel (2nd Law of Thermodynamics). Therefore it would have to have something outside of the universe (what ever you want to call it) to sustain it our it would simply go the way of “the strong man” from my blog (Entropy). By definition that sustaining entity would have to be “outside” of nature THUS supernatural or at least othernatural. This is evidence for something existing outside of nature.
If the universe hasn’ been around forever then it must have something that caused it. Please point me to one single thing that you have ever personally experienced or seen that doesn’t have a cause (and don’t say “it’s the universe, stupid”) because that’s circular reasoning. This is evidence for something existing that is a Creator of some sort—just as the Big Bang is one of the greatest scientific evidences from the existience of some kind of cosmic Beginner.
Learn your stuff before you start arguing with someone who has two degrees in the field of study. You’re welcome on my blog anytime but you certainly don’t belong in this discussion. By the way, whos said anything about a “giant invisible man or a holy spook” and if you wan’t to have a “reasonable” discussion then know your facts.
Seriously, though, have a nice weekend.
Your understanding of nature as an open system is severely limited. What you have done is imagined an energy source located “outside” of nature. There is no reason to imagine that energy source as “outside.” It is merely part of nature, given the fact that the word “nature” means that which exists. Therefore, if your additional energy source exists, it is part of nature.
The amount of energy in the never winds down. There is always the same amount. It does not become more, nor does it become less. Energy cannot be created nor destroyed.
Therefore, we know there was no creator.
This conversation is has evolved into somthing akin to the third John McClane adventure… it has run out of energy…although I have not seen the latest installment, I will have to update my Netflix account and check it out. In the meantime I will whisper a prayer for manupin that he / she may come to know God as surely as God knows of Manupin.
Good day
i still call it a TKO
I’m going to respond one more time, Manupmen, although entropy is taking it’s toll on this discussion (smile). “Matter” cannot be created or destroyed, only changed…, at least that’s what’s been taught in science classes the past couple of decades. Matter and Energy are not the same thing. Energy can be used up and the energy in the universe is constantly being used up–see the “mathmatical” and “scientific laws” of thermodynamics. These are not theories or hypothesis such as are Dark Matter and the like, these are clear, provable natural laws. Ulltimately we all choose to believe what we think is reasonable—but sometimes our desire to not believe something hinders our willingness to believe that which makes sense (which you could obviously say about me as well). I wish you many blessings.
Matter and energy are the same thing. E=mc2
By the way, no one has ever demonstrated any energy being drained from the universe, and no one has ever shown any energy being added. We know that energy is neither created nor destroyed, so there is no lessening of energy in the universe.
Faith has a way of clouding one’s thinking.
It’s useless to debate with the close-minded, dear