GOD, THE SCIENCE, THE EVIDENCE (Review 1): Why The ‘Thermal Death’ of the Universe Is Coming

(928 WORDS) — Michael-Yves Bollore and Olivier Bonnassies are the co-authors of a 538-page book that, judging by its great heft and elevated title — “God, The Science, The Evidence: The dawn of a revolution” — couldn’t sell 400,000 copies in a decade, much less in barely a year.

How to account for such unexpected success and the influence that follows is a challenge, at least until you actually sit down with this heavyweight and start reading it. In short order, you are likely to find yourself thinking how impressively easy it makes  understanding matters of science 99 percent of us heretofore assume to be beyond our humble faculties.

The reality is that science and its history, and the evidences and contexts thereof, aren’t so mysterious after all, especially when intelligent men and women put aside cherished (and often unconscious) presuppositions about the nature of things, and allow themselves to see what is right in front of either their faces or their minds.

Bollore and Bonnassies are, respectively, computer scientist and entrepreneur. They have a gift of explaining complex matters in straightforward, easily grasped prose that brings out the most important points of a discussion in an illuminating context.

In addition, they don’t beat around the bush regarding their own perspectives on these matters that are so fundamental to all of our understanding of the universe into which we are born, live in and leave at death.

They are clear, but not exceedingly blunt, thus leaving open the doorway for further discussion with sincere, open minds and intentions.

Beginning today with our examination of GTSTE’s chapter on “the Thermal Death of the Universe: Story of an End, Proof of a Beginning” HillFaith sets out upon a reviewing journey through some of the most fascinating chapters of this profoundly important and engaging book.

With that note, let us look at the eventual Thermal Death of our universe.

To illustrate it, as the authors suggest, consider yourself sitting around a warm campfire during the evening of a trek in the woods. As the time goes by, you notice the flames are steadily consuming the logs you lit to ignite the flames to begin with, with the result being, first, burning embers, then smoky ashes, and finally nothing but grey ashes left behind.

Wait a while longer and all of those ashes will be cold. The heat of the fire that reduced the logs to those ashes is entirely gone. About which the authors point out:

“But there is another important conclusion we can draw from our observations: Since the fire is being consumed at a measurable rate, it cannot have been burning forever. If it had always existed, then it would also have burned down and gone out an infinitely long time ago. We can deduce, therefore, that the first was kindled by someone at some particular point in the past.”

Yes, that someone was you. But the authors continue:

“The same goes for the Universe, which is consuming itself at an observable rate: If it had always existed, it would have already arrived at its exhaustion point, and therefore its end. This is why the Heat Death of the Universe implies that there was an absolute beginning.”

Back in the 19th century, the authors tell us Rudolf Clausius postulated that “without the input of information or external energy, every isolated system will experience an irreversible increase in what he called ‘entropy’ (derived from the Greek word for ‘transformation’) as it evolves from an initial state toward a state of final equilibrium.”

Implications of that observation were developed by others who followed Clausius, such as Ludwig Boltzmann who mathematically expressed the reality that a closed energy system always progresses from low to high entropy, or disorder.

What does this mean in the debate between those who claim there is no God, that the material universe is all there is, and those who contend there must be a beginning of the universe and a beginner, or God?

“From the materialist perspective, the universe is a giant, closed system that contains everything there is. Nothing exists outside of it. That means the universe is just like our fire blazing in the fireplace or the candle that slowly burns down. If we look toward the future, all energy will sooner or later be completely used up.

“By this logic, conversely, if we look toward the past, the universe must have had a beginning because it is impossible to imagine a closed system that has been endlessly consuming itself over an infinitely long span of time.

“If that were the case, it would have been used up an infinity of time ago, so Infinity minus Time equals Infinity. Whatever finite Time we subtract from Infinity, we are always left with Infinity. Therefore, if the universe has been expending its usable energy for an infinitely long time, it should have already exhausted it, However, this is not the case. The universe therefore must have had a beginning.”

These scientific reasonings were mirrored in the philosophy community, beginning in the sixth century (i.e. 500-599 A.D.) by Egyptian Christian thinker John Philoponus, and subsequently taken over by Medieval Muslim and Christian philosophers. Out of their work came what we know today at the Kalam (Arabic for “discussion”) Cosmological Argument, which holds that:

A second implication discussed in the Thermal Death chapter by the authors is that the presence of order is highest at minimal entropy. But that’s a topic for another post! For now, just remember that Something cannot come from Nothing without a beginner/creator.