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
Some information about
thermodynamics
here,
here, and
here.
