Creative Agencies and Their Characteristics
Some people have proposed that the universe is uncreated (“it just always was”) and others think the universe is always being created. We have already shown in The First Three Days of the Earth that neither proposal is correct. In so doing we have used a consequence of the second law of thermodynamics without identifying it explicitly. We pointed out that stars and every other heat source or heat engine will eventually exhaust their fuel, and that physics provides no way to create new fuel spontaneously. But that means that physics had no way to create the present (now partially depleted) supplies of fuel at the beginning. It took a powerful agency to provide the energy that makes up the universe. Once we understand the second law and its connection to information we will see that the agency had to act in an intelligent way. It was not a blind force.
Many scientists think that the only powerful, intelligent agency that could have created the universe is God. But some people have made a serious effort to identify agencies other than God that may have created the universe. Before identifying God as the Creator of the universe, we should look to see what characteristics the known laws of physics require the agency to have. This is another, very important way the second law of thermodynamics can help us. It gives us criteria to identify the agent that acted at the beginning.
Many scientists think that the only powerful, intelligent agency that could have created the universe is God. But some people have made a serious effort to identify agencies other than God that may have created the universe. Before identifying God as the Creator of the universe, we should look to see what characteristics the known laws of physics require the agency to have. This is another, very important way the second law of thermodynamics can help us. It gives us criteria to identify the agent that acted at the beginning.
Thermodynamic Prerequisites for Creation
To create without starting with pre-existing materials, a pre-existing agency must work to supply a deposit of energy. Later processes that convert energy to matter may cause part of the energy to materialize.
Low entropy is high information. To create order, an external agent must process information intelligently. An intelligent agent had to choose the initial conditions of the universe very carefully to make life possible in it. Later the natural increase of entropy would slowly destroy the deposit of information.
Low entropy is high information. To create order, an external agent must process information intelligently. An intelligent agent had to choose the initial conditions of the universe very carefully to make life possible in it. Later the natural increase of entropy would slowly destroy the deposit of information.
Agency or Agent
Choosing wisely requires intelligence. We mentioned an agency before, the one that did the work necessary to generate the energy of the gamma rays. Now it appears that the agency was also intelligent and acted with an apparent purpose. It was not merely a very powerful agency. It was also very intelligent. Therefore it was not an agency but an agent. Creating the universe took the intelligent work of an Agent with unlimited power and unlimited intelligence. The Omnipotent, Omniscient Agent who created the universe is usually called God.
By wisdom the LORD laid the earth’s foundations, by understanding he set the heavens in place–Proverbs 3:19.
Complex Order, Life, and Intelligence
The chlorophyll molecule is like a hand on a long, flexible stem. The “hand” is a cage that holds a single magnesium atom in a special orientation. Chlorophyll uses the magnesium atom like a magnet to pick up and transfer parts of one molecule to another as the cage moves back and forth on the long stem. Chlorophyll is an ingenious molecular machine, but it doesn’t operate in isolation. Other structures have to bring the raw materials or molecules up to the chlorophyll and carry the molecular products away. The hemoglobin in our blood uses an iron atom in a similar cage to carry oxygen to all our body cells, and to remove carbon dioxide. If chlorophyll is the result of an extremely lucky accident that occurred in a “warm little pond” one day on the Earth’s surface, how is it possible that a similar extremely lucky accident produced the identical design in hemoglobin, substituting iron for magnesium? But creative designers often reuse their most elegant solutions.
Random Action and Complexity
Early random collisions formed the first nuclei, and later all the elements. Afterward random collisions formed the simplest organic molecules, like formaldehyde, in the dust clouds left from exploding stars. However, random collisions by themselves could never in the age of the universe form the simplest system of complex molecules necessary for life. Why not? There is a soft barrier between the regimes of what random collisions can and can’t do. The location of the barrier is related to the alphabet length for coded messages.
We may think of all the natural nuclei as words spelled from a two-letter alphabet. Let the letters be p for proton and n for neutron. In this language the order of the letters is arbitrary. Let’s say that all the p’s come first and then the n’s. We can make words by prefixing p or suffixing n to a valid shorter word. The nuclei the words represent may be stable or they may have a half-life ranging from a small fraction of a second to hundreds of millions of years. Of the two one-letter words, p is stable and n has a half-life of 13 minutes. Deuterium is pn, a stable isotope of hydrogen. Suffixing an n gives pnn, tritium, an unstable isotope of hydrogen with a half-life of 12.26 years. The number of p’s determines the name of the element. Forms of helium are ppn, ppnn, ppnnn, and ppnnnn. The first two are stable. The last has a half-life of 0.82 seconds. The one with a total of five nuclear particles has a half-life of 0.002 micro-micro-microseconds.
We can now see why random collisions can form the 92 elements. The alphabet is extremely simple. It has just two letters. Furthermore, the chart of stability for all valid combinations of protons and neutrons is one nearly continuous, simply connected curve from the simplest nucleus, hydrogen, to the most complex, uranium.
A chart of chemical compounds containing just two atoms would have 92 rows and 92 columns. The permitted combinations are sparsely scattered over the chart, more widely dispersed than the 26-row, 26-column chart of letter combinations that form accepted two-letter words in a given language. This added complexity prevents forming most chemical compounds from simpler ones by adding an atom at a time, just as prefixing or suffixing a letter at a time to existing words can never form more than a few long words. Chemists tell us that the processes that form chemical compounds are much more complicated than just adding one atom at a time to an existing compound. Few elements are available in monatomic form, and most of those that are usually monatomic don’t form any compounds.
Seen this way, making complex molecules is not just a matter of adjusting the probabilities for random action. Random action cannot make a molecule like chlorophyll or hemoglobin, no matter how conditions adjust the probabilities. The synthesis of such molecules is an elaborate, intelligently contrived procedure.
Life depends on a very complex organization of atoms. When seeking life elsewhere in the universe, we must be prepared to encounter complexity. We should not be surprised to find surprises. Let’s therefore not rely on random searches for a fortuitous coincidence of factors, basing our hope merely on large numbers.
We may think of all the natural nuclei as words spelled from a two-letter alphabet. Let the letters be p for proton and n for neutron. In this language the order of the letters is arbitrary. Let’s say that all the p’s come first and then the n’s. We can make words by prefixing p or suffixing n to a valid shorter word. The nuclei the words represent may be stable or they may have a half-life ranging from a small fraction of a second to hundreds of millions of years. Of the two one-letter words, p is stable and n has a half-life of 13 minutes. Deuterium is pn, a stable isotope of hydrogen. Suffixing an n gives pnn, tritium, an unstable isotope of hydrogen with a half-life of 12.26 years. The number of p’s determines the name of the element. Forms of helium are ppn, ppnn, ppnnn, and ppnnnn. The first two are stable. The last has a half-life of 0.82 seconds. The one with a total of five nuclear particles has a half-life of 0.002 micro-micro-microseconds.
We can now see why random collisions can form the 92 elements. The alphabet is extremely simple. It has just two letters. Furthermore, the chart of stability for all valid combinations of protons and neutrons is one nearly continuous, simply connected curve from the simplest nucleus, hydrogen, to the most complex, uranium.
A chart of chemical compounds containing just two atoms would have 92 rows and 92 columns. The permitted combinations are sparsely scattered over the chart, more widely dispersed than the 26-row, 26-column chart of letter combinations that form accepted two-letter words in a given language. This added complexity prevents forming most chemical compounds from simpler ones by adding an atom at a time, just as prefixing or suffixing a letter at a time to existing words can never form more than a few long words. Chemists tell us that the processes that form chemical compounds are much more complicated than just adding one atom at a time to an existing compound. Few elements are available in monatomic form, and most of those that are usually monatomic don’t form any compounds.
Seen this way, making complex molecules is not just a matter of adjusting the probabilities for random action. Random action cannot make a molecule like chlorophyll or hemoglobin, no matter how conditions adjust the probabilities. The synthesis of such molecules is an elaborate, intelligently contrived procedure.
Life depends on a very complex organization of atoms. When seeking life elsewhere in the universe, we must be prepared to encounter complexity. We should not be surprised to find surprises. Let’s therefore not rely on random searches for a fortuitous coincidence of factors, basing our hope merely on large numbers.