SCIENTISTS SPEAK about the Laws of Nature - 2
All nature is governed by law, yet evolutionists stand in defiance of them. Their theory is an outlaw theory. The truth is that evolutionary theory is a myth. God created everything; the evidence clearly points to it. This is science vs. evolution—a Creation-Evolution Encyclopedia, brought to you by Creation Science Facts.
CONTENTS: Scientists Speak about the Laws of Nature - 2
Evolutionary Theorists Defy the Second Law - Evolutionists declare their theory to be above the law
But Some Have Doubts - Are we daring enough to resist the laws of physics?
The Second Law Is an Impregnable Fortress - In reality, nothing created can overthrow this law
How Did Everything Get Wound up in the Beginning? - If the clock is running down, who wound it up to begin with?
God Must Stand Behind These Laws - Both laws point to God as the One who made everything.
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
Contents
EVOLUTIONARY THEORISTS DEFY THE SECOND LAW
Evolutionists declare their theory to be above the law.
"This direction in evolution can thus also be characterized by an increase in complexity and independence of the environment."—^J.C. Lacey, Jr., and ^D. Mullins, Jr., "Proteins and Nucleic Acids in Prebiotic Evolution," in Molecular Evolution: Prebiological and Biological (1972), p. 172.
"An ethical system that bases its premises on absolute pronouncements will not usually be acceptable to those who view human nature by evolutionary criteria."—^A.G. Motulaky, "Brave New World?" Science, Vol. 185, August 23, 1974, p. 654.
"Does our time scale, then, partake of natural law? No."—^Edmund M. Spieker, "Mountain-Building Chronology and Nature of Geological Time Scale," in Bulletin of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists, Vol. 40, August, p. 1803.
"Our theory of evolution has become . . one which cannot be refuted by any possible observation. Every conceivable observation can be fitted into it. It is thus `outside of empirical science' but not necessarily false. No one can think of ways in which to test it. Ideas, either without basis or based on a few laboratory experiments carried out in extremely simplified systems have attained currency far beyond their validly. They have become part of an evolutionary dogma accepted by most of us as part of our training."—^P. Erlich and ^L.C. Birch, "Evolutionary History and Population Biology," Nature, Vol. 214, April 22, 1967, p. 352.
"Most enlightened persons now accept as a fact that everything in the cosmos—from heavenly bodies to human beings—has developed through evolutionary processes."—^Rene Dubos, "Humanistic Biology," in American Scientist, 53 (1965), p. 6.
"A recent suggestion is that for the universe considered as a whole, the law of entropy increase is brought to a standstill by the `continuous creation' of matter. The hypothesis of `continuous creation' has in fact been introduced in the attempt to neutralize the law of entropy trend of the cosmic scales."—^A.R. Ubbelohde, Man and Energy, p. 177.
"Evolution is the doctrine of the universe, including inorganic and organic matter in all its manifestations, and is the product of gradual and progressive development."—^E. Olsen and ^J. Robinson, Concepts of Evolution (1975), p. 10.
"The evolution of life is an anti-entropic process, running counter to the second law of thermodynamics with its degradation of energy and its tendency to uniformity."—^Julian Huxley, Introduction, Teilhard de Chardin, Phenomenon of Man (1959), p. 27.
BUT SOME HAVE DOUBTS
Are we daring enough to resist the laws of physics?
"But an answer can readily be given to the question, `Has the second law of thermodynamics been circumvented?' Not Yet."—^Frank A. Greco, "On the Second Law of Thermodynamics," in American Laboratory, October 1982, p. 88.
"One problem biologists have faced is the apparent contradiction by evolution of the second law of thermodynamics. Systems should decay through time, giving less, not more order."—^Roger Lewin, "A Downward Slope to Greater Diversity," in Science, September 24, 1982, p. 1239.
"We believe that evolution somehow magically creates greater overall value and order on earth. Now that the environment we live in is becoming so dissipated and disordered that it is apparent to the naked eye, we are beginning for the first time to have second thoughts about our views on evolution, progress, and the creation of things of material value . . Evolution means the creation of larger and larger islands of order at the expense of the ever greater seas of disorder in the world."—^Jeremy Rifkin, Entropy: A New World View (1980), p. 55.
"Henry Bent, a chemist, calculated on the basis of the second law that the chance for a reversal of entropy, such that one calorie could be converted completely into work, is comparable to the odds for a group of monkeys randomly punching at the typewriters to `produce Shakespeare's works 15 quadrillion times in succession without an error."—^S.W. Angrist, "Perpetual Motion Machines," in Scientific American (1968), pp. 218, 120-121.
"Contrary to popular belief, not a single star, planet, or galaxy has ever been seen forming spontaneously out of cosmic debris. Such imaginary evolutionary processes do not even work on paper! Why, then, are we continually told that we live in an evolving universe rather than a degenerating universe? Because of the implications of such an admission, a universe that is running down demands a Creator who `wound it up' at the beginning. And astronomers today have a morbid fear of the stigma of creationism."—H.R. Siegler, Evolution or Degeneration: Which? (1972), p. 52.
THE SECOND LAW IS AN IMPREGNABLE FORTRESS
In reality, nothing created can overthrow this law.
"(A law) is more impressive the greater the simplicity of its premises; the more different are the kinds of things it relates and the more extended its range of applicability. Therefore, the deep impression which classical thermodynamics made on me. It is the only physical theory of universal content which I am convinced, that within the framework of applicability of its basic concepts will never be overthrown."—^Albert Einstein, quoted in ^M.J. Klein, "Thermodynamics in Einstein's Universe," in Science, 157 (1967), p. 509 and also in Isaac Asimov's Book of Science and Nature Quotations, p. 76.
"No matter how carefully we examine the energetics of living systems we find no evidence of defeat of thermodynamic principles."—^Harold Blum, Time's Arrow and Evolution (1962), p. 119.
"If your theory is found to be against the second law of thermodynamics, I can give you no hope; there is nothing for it (your theory) but to collapse in the deepest humiliation."—^Arthur S. Eddington, The Nature of the Physical World (1930), p. 74.
"The second law of thermodynamics not only is a principle of wide reaching scope and application, but also is one which has never failed to satisfy the severest test of experiment. The numerous quantitative relations derived from this law have been subjected to more and more accurate experimental investigations without the detection of the slightest inaccuracy."—^G.N. Lewis and ^M. Randall, Thermodynamics (1961), p. 87.
"There is thus no justification for the view, often glibly repeated, that the Second Law of Thermodynamics is only statistically true, in the sense that microscopic violations repeatedly occur, but never violations of any serious magnitude. On the contrary, no evidence has ever been presented that the Second Law breaks down under any circumstances."—^A.B. Pippard, Elements of Chemical Thermodynamics for Advanced Students of Physics (1966), p. 100.
"Although it is true that the amount of matter in the universe is perpetually changing, the change appears to be mainly in one direction—toward dissolution . . The sun is slowly but surely burning out, the stars are dying embers, and everywhere the cosmos heart is turning to cold; matter is dissolving into radiation, and energy is being dissipated into empty space.
"The universe is thus progressing toward an ultimate `heat death' or, as it is technically defined, a condition of `maximum entropy' . . And there is no way of avoiding this destiny. For the fateful principle known as the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which stands today as the principal pillar of classical physics left intact by the march of science, proclaims that the fundamental processes of nature are irreversible. Nature moves only one way."—^Lincoln Barnett, The Universe and Dr. Einstein (1957), pp. 102-103.
HOW DID EVERYTHING GET WOUND UP IN THE BEGINNING?
If the clock is running down, who wound it up to begin with?
"The universe is like a clock which is running down, a clock which, so far as science knows, no one ever winds up, which cannot wind itself up, and so must stop in time. It is at present a partially wound-up clock, which must, at some time in the past, have been wound up in some manner unknown to us.
"Everything points with overwhelming force to a definite event or series of events of creation at some time or times not infinitely remote. The universe cannot have originated by chance out of its present ingredients, and neither can it have been always the same as now."—^Sir James Jeans, Eos, or the Wider Aspects of Cosmogony (1928), p. 52.
"Everything, indeed everything, visible in nature or established in theory, suggests that the universe is implacably progressing toward final darkness and decay.
"There is an important philosophical corollary to this view. For if the universe is running down and nature's processes are proceeding in just one direction, the inescapable inference is that everything has a beginning: Somehow and sometime the cosmic processes were started, the stellar fires ignited, and the whole vast pageant of the universe brought into being . . So all the evidence that points to the ultimate annihilation of the universe points just as definitely to an inception fixed in time."—^Lincoln Barnett, The Universe and Dr. Einstein (1957), pp. 102-103.
"The greatest puzzle is where all the order in the universe came from originally. How did the cosmos get wound up, if the second law of thermodynamics predicts asymmetric unwinding towards disorder?"—^Paul C.W. Davies (1979).
GOD MUST STAND BEHIND THESE LAWS
Both laws point to God as the One who made everything.
"If complex organisms ever did evolve from simpler ones, the process took place contrary to the laws of nature, and must have involved what may rightly be termed the miraculous."—^R.E.D. Clark, Victoria Institute, 1943, p. 63.
"The world had a beginning under conditions in which the known laws are not valid, and as a product of forces or circumstances we cannot discover."—^Robert Jastrow, God and the Astronomers (1978), p. 114.
"The only way to decrease entropy in any system is to have a flow of entropy out of the system which is greater than the sum of the entropy flowing into it and the internally produced entropy. Such an entropy outflow is equivalent of putting information and order into the system from outside it. But as long as entropy inflow and outflows are accounted for, the second law holds. So the second law does apply to open systems.
"It is a perversion of language to assign any law as the efficient, operative, cause of anything. A law presupposes an agent; for it is only the mode, according to which an agent proceeds; it implies a power; for it is the order, according to which that power acts. Without this agent, without this power, which are both distinct from itself (from the law), the law does nothing; is nothing."—William Paley, Natural Theology, chapter 1, item VII.
"Creationists continually refer to the laws of thermodyamics in their arguments against a natural origin for living systems.
"The First Law of Thermodynamics, sometimes called the Law of Conservation of Energy, states that energy can be transformed from one kind to another, but it can neither be created nor destroyed. Since matter and energy have been interconvertible, the First Law can be modified to state that neither matter nor energy can be created or destroyed.
"The Second Law of Thermodynamics states that in converting one form of energy to another, some of it is lost as unusuable heat. Entropy is the thermodynamic quality for randomness or disorder within a system. The Second Law therefore implies that as energy is being transformed throughout the universe, entropy is increasing. These Laws argue strongly for a created universe!"—^W. Stansfield, The Science of Evolution (1977), p. 57.
"It seems to me astronomy has proven that forces are at work in the world that are beyond the present power of scientific description; these are literally supernatural forces, because they are outside of natural law."—^S. Toulmin, "Science, Philosophy of," in Encyclopaedia Britanica, Vol. 16 (15th ed., 1974), p. 389.
"A final point to be made is that the second law of thermodynamics and the principle of increase in entropy have great philosophical implications. The question that arises is how did the universe get into the state of reduced entropy in the first place, since all natural processes known to us tend to increase entropy? . . The author has found that the second law tends to increase his conviction that there is a Creator who has the answer for the future destiny of man and the universe."—^Gordon J. Van Wylen, Thermodynamics (1959), p. 169.
"It seems to be one of the fundamental features of nature that fundamental physical laws are described in terms of a mathematical theory of great beauty and power, needing quite a high standard of mathematics for one to understand it . . One could perhaps describe the situation by saying that God is a mathematician of a very high order, and He used very advanced mathematics in constructing the universe."—^P.A.M. Dirac, "The Evolution of the Physicist's Picture of Nature," in Scientific American, May 1963, p. 53.
"Most secularized people use evolution to give them the excuse to reject God and His moral laws—the rules He has given us so that we can lead lives that are pleasing to Him."—David A. Kaufmann, "Book Review," Creation Research Society Quarterly, December 1990, p. 109.
"The scientist's religious feeling takes the form of a rapturous amazement at the harmony of natural law, which reveals an intelligence of such superiority that, compared with it, all the systematic thinking and acting of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection."—^Albert Einstein, The World as I See It, p. 9.