Evolution: Apples Falling Up
If true, evolutionary theory requires that nature break a fundamental law of nature.
If evolution is true, then it directly contradicts known laws of science.
Evolutionary theory is revolutionary for one huge, overlooked, ignored, and devastating reason: Evolution is believed despite the fact that it relies on nature acting in ways that nature is not known to act.
Let us explain. Nature in many aspects is very well understood. In fact, where nature is best understood we speak of the laws of nature. For example, there is the law of gravity. There is much about gravity that is a mystery, but in terms of how we experience it in nature, depend on its predictability, rely on its repeatability, or use its force, there is no mystery. If an apple falls from a tree, it will always fall down to the ground. It's the law.
Now, stay with us for moment. There is another set of well-established, inviolable laws in nature called the Laws of Thermodynamics. For the moment, disregard the serious-sounding name. These three (or four) laws of nature relate to how energy flows in nature. As far as we know, like the law of gravity, these laws are never, ever, ever, ever, violated.
Except, we must believe, by evolution.
We are told that evolutionary processes do something that the Laws of Thermodynamics say cannot happen. We will explain in simple terms below.
But first, imagine if evolutionary processes depended on gravity not working. That is, imagine if natural selection required that the law of gravity be violated such that very often an apple would fall up, instead of down out of a tree.
That is the equivalent of what we must believe about evolution in the context of the Laws of Thermodyamics. The difference is that we all have a good grasp of gravity, and would quickly call foul on a theory of nature that relies on gravity not working. But few of us are conversant with the Laws of Thermodynamics, and could recognize when evolution requires that one of them--the Second Law of Thermodynamics--is violated if evolutionary theory is true.
Very simply (please, all you smart people, we know that this is VERY simplified, but it is nevertheless precisely accurate), the Second Law of Thermodynamics requires that in the absence of some ordering principle or directed energy input in or into nature, energy is always expended such that everything in nature naturally trends toward increasing disorder, not increased order.
Think of your kid's bedrooms, an unattended rock wall in a field, a drop of red dye dropped into water, decaying leaves on the forest floor, etc. You get the idea, because we all see it in nature. In the absence of an ordering principle directing energy to do the opposite, things become strewn about, disentegrate, break up, fall apart, become disarrayed, turn to shambles, or otherwise become more disordered. It is the law!
But, if evolutionary theory is true, random mutations and natural selection greatly reduce disorder and produce vast amounts of increased order. How can this be? A natural unattended system that operates to produce order out of disorder, or more complex order out of less complex order (in the absence of directed (e.g., intelligent) energy input), directly and clearly violates the Second Law of Thermodynamics.
This lawlessness of evolution is not new news to evolutionists. But evolutionists have a handy, predictable dodge. Evolutionists will quickly tell you two true things to lead you to believe one very deceptively untrue thing. Evolutionists will tell you that (1) the Second Law only applies to "closed systems" and (2) the system of our Earth is not closed, it is open to the energy of the sun. These two true things are said so as to make you believe the untrue thing: the Second Law is not violated by evolution; the sun solves the problem.
We can reply to this dodge in many ways. For example, relying on the sun to cause the law-defying miracle of evolution seems misplaced. In the absence of a designed system to direct energy (like photosynthesis) or law-abiding examples of ordered lowest energy states (like crystals which obey the laws of thermodynamics by trending to their lowest energy state), what does the raw energy of the sun do to everything it touches on earth? Yes, it eventually destroys it! It contributes to rotting, decaying, fading, and general disentegration of everything not designed to handle its energy, including human beings. Its endless stream of energy dumped into our atmosphere is part of the cause of the disorder we see, and it cannot reverse and violate the Second Law of Thermodynamics.
But there's a better response to the dodgers. So before we lose you, let us explain a simple way to think about evolution and the Second Law of Thermodynamics.
Imagine a large fishtank filled with water and a submerged capsule of red dye. And we will imagine that this fishtank represents our universe--the entire known cosmos--earth, sun, stars, galaxies, everything. As a representation of our universe, our fishtank represents the ultimate "closed system" that is the law-dodgers safe haven. There is no energy input, like the sun, to be had outside of our system; it's all in the fishtank. The capsule of red dye represents pre-Big Bang matter.
Now, at the Big Bang the capsule of red dye explodes in the water of our fishtank sending red dye molecules into the water. Without even knowing anything about nature's laws, what do you know will happen?
Your are correct, you do understand the Second Law of Thermodynamics! The law-abiding red dye will eventually diffuse evenly in the water of the fishtank, turning the water a shade of pink or red, depending how much dye is dispersed. That is the Second Law of Thermodynamics in action. And it is not surprising. It is entirely predictable that once released at the Big Bang the red dye goes from its original ordered state to a state of evenly distributed disorder of the red dye molecules. It works every time. After all, it is the law.
Do you know what would be surprising? What if you walked by your pink-water fishtank a few years later and noticed that a red droplet of dye had regrouped back into a neatly ordered ball of dye off in a corner of the fishtank? You look closely and realize that some of the previously diffused red dye molecules must have left their random, diffused, law-abiding state of disorder, and have collected back into an ordered droplet of red dye.
This would not be just surprising. According to everything we know about nature and our cosmos, such an event is impossible. It is against the law. It would be a miracle. Try it at home: Place a drop of red dye into a glass of water. Watch it diffuse evenly throughout the water. Then wait for the red dye to go back into a droplet form.
And yet . . .
Our imaginary law-defying red drop of dye in the fishtank is exactly analogous to the supposed products of evolution in our corner of the universe. Evolution is said to have taken the general randomness of matter that diffused into the cosmos from the Big Bang, and over time changed it into the very localized, extremely ordered, law-defying biological complexity of us!
If you could stand outside our universe and peer in, you would be just as surprised to see our sun-earth system defying the Second Law of Thermodynamics as you would be to see our little red drop regrouping in the fishtank.
Why: Because both events are against the laws of nature.
No other branch or discipline of science does--or ever would--tolerate such blatant lawlessness.
Why does evolutionary theory not only tolerate lawlessness, but depend upon it?
Think about it.
To our Substack readers. The post above was first posted to our blog www.creation-reformation.com. Over time we will post exclusive content on Substack. So if you like this post, subscribe. Thanks!