Thermodynamics, as the name suggests, is a branch of physics that deals with the properties and transfer of energy in the form of heat. Entropy is a technical term used in physics to describe the unavailable energy in a closed system (a closed system can be thought of as a system in which there are no new inputs of energy). Entropy is usually used to measure the ‘disorder' present in one of these closed systems, and ‘disorder' in this sense is another technical term used in physics. According to the first law of thermodynamics (the principle of the conservation of energy) in such a closed system, with no new inputs, the total amount of energy (usually expressed in terms of heat) remains constant. The 2nd law is used to describe the movement of heat within such a closed system, and is an expression of the fact that in such a closed system this movement can only occur in one direction. For example, in a closed system, with no additional input of energy, the heat energy from a warm body will transfer to a colder body until both bodies reach a constant state of equilibrium (they both become the same temperature). The total energy of the closed system remains constant (in keeping with the 1st law) and all that has happened is that, following the principle of the 2nd law of thermodynamics, a transfer has taken place in one direction, and it is impossible in nature, without the input of further energy, for this transfer to take place in the opposite direction. The process mever reverses itself with the hot body taking heat from the cooler body, so that the system reaches equilibrium with a hot body and a colder body present in the system. The third law of thermodynamics is a description of a system with no entropy and no disorder, once again expressed in terms of heat. A perfect crystal at a temperature of absolute zero has no heat (no molecules are moving) and thus has no disorder, is the most perfectly ‘ordered' state, and the entropy is zero.
I mention this because terms such as ‘disorder' are often misused by Biblical creationists. Furthermore the second law of thermodynamics is also abused, in that the law describes what occurs within a closed system, and the earth is not a closed system. It is an open system, and is constantly receiving new inputs in the form of energy and heat from the sun. So what might apply in a truly closed system, does not apply in open system such as the earth, which is not moving towards what would technically be described as ‘greater disorder' for this very reason.
In any case the term ‘disorder' has different connotations when used in physics than it does in normal discourse, but most people might not be aware of the distinction, and assume that science declares that all systems become more ‘disorderly', like a messy room, over time. Thus it would be impossible to explain the increasing complexity found in the fossil record since this implies ‘greater order' and does not the 2nd law of thermodynamics state that the fossil record should degrade over time, becoming more disorderly instead of more complex. Now, assuming that the 2nd law was saying that any room of a house, for example, becomes more disorderly over time, then perhaps it might also apply to the fossil record and declare that the evidence of the increasing complexity found as we move up in layers in the fossil beds is a violation of the laws of science. But actually ‘disorder' is a technical term used in physics to describe how molecules move in terms of temperature and any warm body will have more ‘disorder' than the only perfectly orderly system, one of a certain perfect crystal at a temperature of absolute zero.
The earth however, is not a closed system, and thus, because the system is open, the state can move to what would technically be described as ‘greater order' not ‘greater disorder'. All the 2nd law of thermodynamics describes is the unidirectional nature of change in a closed system (the temperature will even out over the entire system, reaching equilibrium). The second law does not preclude the system moving towards greater order, it only specifies that in a closed system the change will always take place in only one direction because there is no new inputs of energy. The earth is open system and creationist refuse to acknowledge this fact when constructing a propaganda assault against science. The terms ‘disorder' and ‘violation of laws of nature' give a really scientific ring to the doctrines of biblical inerrancy, something badly needed as far as propaganda goes, by the way.
Now as for the argument from design, which is normally used in conjunction with this off hand references to ‘violating the laws of nature', I am certainly sympathetic to ‘the argument from design', and consider this a valid philosophical point of view. As for creation, as distinguished from Bible based creation, the origins of the first simplest forms of life on earth is one of the great unexplained facts of biology at present, although biologists like to point out that the chemical processes that produce any carbon compound are identical to processes that produce a biological molecule, and that in terms of chemistry there is nothing that makes a carbon molecule used to make life any different from any other carbon molecule. The chemical process is so straightforward that the universe is literally full of amino acids floating in the interstellar void, and such molecules can be expected to spontaneously form in any open system where inputs of energy are present. However, no one has demonstrated yet how an animo acid becomes ‘alive' enough to form even the simplest creature. Once life starts, and mutations take place, then evolution is adequate to explain the differentiation that takes place between species, but the spontaneous creation of the first program of life, with its billions of bits of coded instructions, the DNA molecule, is something that biologists have yet to prove...As for evolution, there is nothing in the second law of thermodynamics, and nothing to that tossing around of the word ‘disorder' that precludes this from happening. This is just a conservative apologetic technique using the classic methods of propaganda, and exploits public ignorance both about the Bible and public scientific illiteracy...
A Unified Field Theory
The Unified Field Theory
is also available as a zip file -> unified.zip
Introduction :The Pioneer Effect and the New Physics. A brief description of the new physics required to explain the 'Pioneer Effect', which is the constant deceleration of space craft as they fly through space.