A Letter to an Atheist
I
have a very good friend who claims to be an atheist. He lives a life entirely in
compliance with Christian morals and ethics, which makes me doubt the sincerity
of his atheistic beliefs—but…that is beside the point. What I am hoping to do
with this blog post is to show him that his belief in atheism is an
impossibility—it can’t be true.
When
I confronted him with the belief that God created the universe, he denied it
saying that the whole universe, all the planets, stars, rocks, and trees, etc.
have been here forever—they are, in his mind eternal. To him, it seems that God
is not at all necessary. At one time, I pointed out to him that many scientists
believe that the universe is about 15 billion years old and that the sun is
believed to last for another 3-5 billion years. All the stars are in the
process of burning out, just as is the sun. He replied that he does believe the
scientists. I asked him “If you believe
that, and the scientists are right, how can you believe that the universe is
eternal? After all, anything that has a beginning and an end cannot be eternal?”
(I don’t think my argument convinced him of his error.) So…I am writing this
blog in the hope of convincing him that the universe is not eternal; and that
God created it.
There
is one scientific fact that my friend believes; and I, too, believe to be
true—that is the truth of the three postulates of thermodynamics:
1) The first law of
thermodynamics is that energy cannot either be created nor destroyed.
2) The Second law of
thermodynamics is that entropy is always increasing. (Entropy is the
manifestation of constant deterioration and randomness in the system.)
3) A system's entropy
approaches a constant value as the temperature approaches absolute zero (-459.67ยบ
Fahrenheit).
The
energy in the universe is all there is or ever will be. This is the
characteristic of a closed system like our universe.
It
can be shown that matter is merely a storage form of energy; and the two are
simply two expressions of energy. Energy can be turned into matter, as
exemplified by sunlight that is converted into wood, thus showing that energy is
temporarily stored in wood. And…that energy can be released in the form of heat
and light when the wood is burned. Many other examples of this process can be
seen in our universe. We might see this more clearly when we realize that heat
will only pass to objects which are cooler. It will never pass spontaneously to
an object which is has a higher temperature. Systems are thermodynamically
irreversible. The entropy in a system will not work in the opposite direction
spontaneously without input from a source outside the closed system.
The
second law of thermodynamics is that entropy is always increasing. Entropy is
the same as randomness and disorganization in a closed system, like our
universe. This is just another way of saying that all physical systems are
running down to lower and lower levels of energy—thus, they are being
downgraded into useless heat, which is subsequently diffused into outer space,
never to be regained into a useful source. Entropy always moves downwardly; it
never moves to higher energy level systems.
But…one
might ask, if that is true, how does one account for the fact that we,
ourselves are extremely organized beings. Where did we come from, if energy
only moves in one way, e.g., into systems of lower levels of organization.
Where on earth did such highly organized systems as the biological systems we
see every day come from?
The
answer to that question is that some Outside Force caused energy to move
up the scale of existence instead of downward. The only way for highly
organized beings or systems to occur is for an Outside Force to act upon
energy to make it develop into complicated forms of matter, such as the human
body in all its complexity. That Force has to be something or somebody
that exists outside of the closed system of our universe and who is able to cause
energy to become progressively more organized. Nevertheless, our bodies will
eventually follow the inexorable course of deterioration destined for all other
forms of matter, i.e., into useless entropy—heat that will disappear into outer
space. The laws of thermodynamics cannot be denied for long.
All
that being said, we must finally admit that we are all in the process of increasing
entropy. Our world is in the process of becoming useless heat dissipated into outer
space. (Please do not get me wrong here. I am only speaking of our physical bodies,
ourselves in a material sense. All this has nothing to do with the destiny of
our eternal souls—God will take care of that!)
Remember,
I am in the process of proving that the world we live in is not eternal. The
whole thing is faithfully following the laws of thermodynamics. And as entropy only
increases and does not decrease unless it is acted upon by an outside process
or Person, then it will ultimately result in a universe which will be in
complete equilibrium and where there is no more matter or localized energy,
which we might identify as our universe. At that point the temperature of our universe
will be right about absolute zero. Heat will have no other place to
go—equilibrium of the thermodynamic system will have been reached. Needless to
say, this system modification will take a very long time. But…it will occur eventually.
(Unless, of course, God intervenes, again! We have no indication that He will!)
Now,
let’s get back to our original question about the eternality of the universe. It
should be obvious from the above text that if the universe were eternal, then there
should have been plenty of time for all the material and localized energy in
the whole universe to turn into useless entropy. If that were the case,
according to the Third Law of Thermodynamics, there would be absolutely no
material left in the whole universe, and the ambient temperature would
approximate absolute zero. That has certainly not happened, yet; and, thus, we
find ourselves in the middle of the process of all material and localized
energy turning into entropy. It is, thus, concluded that when the final drop of
energy deteriorates in the universe, then that will be the end of the universe,
itself. And…as I have said, before, any system with a definite end cannot be
eternal. Likewise, the deterioration of a given amount of energy in a definite
end presupposes that the energy had to have a beginning. Thus, the universe
must have begun at some definite time.
Now,
a parenthetical note from myself: I most certainly do not subscribe to the idea
that the universe is billions of years old. I hold the biblical principle to be
true that God created the universe, and He did it at a definite time. He very
probably did it much later than the scientists say the universe was born.
But…that is a different subject for a different time. Again, my purpose in writing
this blog is only to show that the universe cannot by any stretch of the
imagination be eternal. It had a beginning and it will have an end.
None
of the above is rocket science. King Solomon said essentially the same thing
3000 years ago: “I know that everything God does will endure forever; nothing
can be added to it and nothing taken from it. God does it so that men will
revere Him.” Ecclesiastes 3:4
(Several
ideas in this blog post came from The Battle for the Beginning by John
F. MacArthur.)
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