The Laws Of Thermodynamics And Christian Apologetics

Ironically, conservative Christian apologists use physics, specifically the Laws of Thermodynamics, to support their magical thinking. Below is an encapsulation of their arguments and science's rebuttals:

1st Law: The total energy of the universe is constant. Energy cannot be created or destroyed, only change form as with matter becoming energy or vice versa. 

• Apologist: This disproves the big bang theory, usually in the argument from first cause form.

• Counter Apologist: The big bang theory doesn't necessarily mean the universe came from nothing; The first law also renders any creation event impossible, because it is, by definition, creating something from nothing.

2nd Law: The entropy of an isolated system does not decrease. This is often taken to mean that disorder always increases.

• Apologist: This a refutation of evolution. More complex life forms could never evolve from simpler ones.

• Counter Apologist: The Earth is not an isolated system, it receives a copious amount of incoming energy from the Sun; Evolution does not imply that life is becoming increasingly complex, it only says that natural selection allows genes to be passed on differentially, such that life forms' characteristics change over time in response to their environment; It is a corruption to believe life is always "more ordered" than inanimate objects. In fact, life does not violate the second law of thermodynamics in a strict energetic sense. The energy of the sun is converted into chemical potential energy, which is converted to mechanical work or heat (since, again, the Earth is not an isolated system). In each case, the energy transfer is inefficient, and some energy is dissipated as heat to the environment, leading to a dispersion of energy. In the same way, "ordered" snowflakes can form when the weather becomes cold but the entropy of the universe still increases.

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