One of the most important topics in science is the origin of lifeit just as important in religion and philosophy. This topic gets to the hart of what and who we are, meaning that getting the correct answer is important.
From a religious perspective and in particular the monotheistic religions of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, God created life in general as well as man kind.Looking at it from a naturalistic - atheistic perspective life is assumed to have arisen by totally natural process in what is called abiogenesis.
A scientific look at both possibilities should tell us which view is the correct view of the origin of life. There exists a principle of thermodynamics that tells us how a given manner of applying energy to a system affects that system’s entropy. This concept can be stated in two simple statements:
If energy is applied to a system in a manner more ordered than that system’s degree of order then it increases the system’s order decreasing the entropy of that system.
If energy is applied to a system in a manner more disordered than that system’s degree of disorder then it increases the system’s disorder increasing the entropy of that system.
The above video shows that when this principle is applied to the problem of the origin of life the results show that naturalistic abiogenesis is a thermodynamic impossibility.
Statistical Entropy:The application of probability theory to the principle of entropy in thermodynamicis. This shows entropy ito be a measure of the amount of disorder in a system. The mathematical relationship is as follows.
The number of equivalent microstates (number of possible ways a given condition to occur) is denoted as W.
Entropy is denoted as S
k is the Boltzmann Constant = 1.38 X 10-23 JL-1
S = k ln W
The larger W is the more disordered the system and the larger a system’s entropy.
The smaller W is the more ordered the system is the more disordered it is and the smaller a system’s entropy.
The Second Law of Thermodynamics
The Second Law of Thermodynamics indicates that entropy tends to increase and because entropy is related to disorder, it also indicates that a system’s degree of disorder tends to increase. The only way to decrease a system’s entropy and increase its order is for work to be performed on the system. Now the Second Law of thermodynamics shows that energy applied a system can reduce its entropy but it does not show how the manner in which energy is applied affects entropy that is it does not show the deference between construction work and a bomb. Getting order from disorder requires an additional principle, a principle that relates entropy and energy.
Order from Disorder
This additional principle is based on the relationship between the degree of order or disorder with which energy is applied to a system and the degree of order or disorder that it produces in that system.
The result is that energy applied to a system in a manner more ordered than that system’s degree of order increases the system’s order and decreases its entropy. On the other hand energy applied to a system in a manner more disordered than that system’s degree of disorder increases the system’s disorder and increases its entropy. The mathematical relationship is as follows.
.Number of equivalent microstates of the applied energy is We .
Number of initial equivalent microstates of the system is Ws .
The change in entropy is denoted as DS.
k is the Boltzmann Constant = 1.38 X 10-23 JL-1.
This shows the general direction that applying energy to a system will move the entropy of that system as well as the maximum change in the systems entropy but the actual change in entropy results from the amount of energy actually applied to the system .
Reduced to it simplest form this principle can be described in two statements:
The general application of energy to a system in a manner more random than that system will increase the entropy of that system.
The general application of energy to a system in a manner less random than that system will decrease the entropy of that system.
This shows the difference between construction work and a bomb because construction work is less random than that of the raw material and so it decreases its entropy. By contrast a bomb explosion is more random than that of the raw material so it decreases its entropy.
Statistical Entropy is probability theory applied to the principle of entropy showing it to be a measurement of the disorder in a system. It is based mainly on the probability of the positions of molecules explaining the tendency; seen in the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics; of entropy to increase. This tendency is because configurations with high entropy are more probable than configurations of low entropy.
The biggest problem with entropy is its tendency to increase. So understanding how to decrease entropy is vary important. The most common answer is adding energy to the system as if that is all that is needed to decrease its entropy.But such an answer is overly simplistic since when energy is applied to a system the way it affects the system’s entropy depends on the way the energy is applied to the system. Consider the difference between construction work and a bomb. Construction work will decrease the entropy of a building under construction. One the other hand a bomb with the same amount of energy and on the same site will inevitably increase the site’s entropy.
This shows that the manner by which energy is applied to a system affects how that energy changes that system’s entropy. What is needed is a general principle that describes this difference and statistical entropy shows exactly how and when entropy can be decreased it shows how to produce order from disorder.
