Some Christians and scientists seem to enjoy fighting about evolution, natural selection, and creationism. At least I hope they enjoy it. It would be a shame to spend so much time doing something that you dislike.

The scientists bring a lot to this fight. They’re scientists, first of all, and we hold them in awe because of that. I know whenever I see a scientist on the street, I stop and stare. It’s the white coat, goggles, and the little flask with a rubber stopper that get my attention. Also scientists can write down all sorts of information using mathematical symbols. I don’t know what that stuff means, but it makes me think that they know something. And you have to give them this: the scientific method is impressive. The scientists always do their homework. They aren’t sloppy.

The Christians always come to the fight with the same old, tired argument. The second law of thermodynamics. They LOVE the second law of thermodynamics. It’s their trump card, their patron saint of science, their “nanny-nanny boo-boo,” and they never get tired of talking about it.

You see, the second law of thermodynamics states that entropy always increases within a system. Things move toward disorder. When left to their own, things do not grow more complex. The energy in the system diffuses, and the system winds down toward inactivity.

In other words, if you toss a ham sandwich on the sidewalk, you wouldn’t expect to come back 10,000 years later and find it smiling at you.

So the basic argument coming from the creationist’s point of view is that you shouldn’t expect complex things like fingers and flippers and fundamentalists to develop out of single celled organisms. And this argument sounds pretty good on the surface.

Except that it’s completely wrong.

The second law of thermodynamics applies to closed systems that have no external source of energy. But if there is an external source of energy, things move from disorder to order all the time. You don’t believe me? Go clean up your kitchen.

The earth, you see, has an external source of energy. Turn your eyes toward the sky. Now move your head around until your eyes start to hurt real bad. See that huge ball of fire? There you go.

Things on the earth do move from disorder to order. Not in my daughter’s bedroom, mind you, but in other places. This is what the scientists are talking about. They have seen evidence of complex systems developing out of lesser complexity. If I was a scientist I could demonstrate this – plus I’d get the lab coat and goggles – but you can trace the energy behind putting your kitchen in order all the way back to the sun.

God doesn’t have to micromanage the rise of complex organisms from more primitive forms. The sun plus unthinkable amounts of time do the trick. If you want to believe that God handles every detail, you can, but that doesn’t work very well, philosophically. It makes the problem of evil hurt real bad. Like sun on your eyeballs.

If this upsets your theology, I know that’s hard. It’s always hard to change the way you think about God. But you need to let your theology flex and bend to fit our ever-growing understanding of the way the world works. I know that sounds like heresy, but our theology changes as our knowledge of the cosmos grows. It always has.

I say we should take this conversation to the stars. Lift your eyes from the squirming fur that covers our planet and consider the heavens. Leave the shadows of the cave wall and stop spitting paint on the back of your hands. Stop worrying about why your uncle grew a third nipple and look to the galaxies and the universe.

I don’t know who came up with the idea of stars spinning around black holes in beautiful, random patterns while life does or does not develop in all its awesome diversity, but that person is a fucking ARTIST. That is large. Fling the stars onto an ocean of dark matter and let them do their thing. I swear I can feel the joy rising to my skin and then up to my scalp when I think of it.

That artist. That’s who I’m talking about. Whoever or whatever set all of this in motion. Whoever dreamed up the stars and delights in their handiwork.

That’s who I’m singing to.

rlp