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om shanti
The
Entropy Law
(The current state
and the future of the world.)
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In
Physics, there are two laws, which deserve to be ranked as the
supreme law. These are the first and the second law of Thermodynamics. Albert Einstein,
world’s most eminent scientist, made the following
observation about these laws: "The more impressive a Theory,
the greater is the simplicity of its premises, the more different
are the kinds of things it relates and the more extended its
range of applicability." As stated in the above observation,
the laws of Thermodynamics have a very wide range of
applicability. These can be applied to Cosmology, History,
Economics, Development of Institutions, Military, Nuclear fission
and to almost everything. It would therefore, be of great
advantage to know briefly what these laws are and how these
explain the present state of the world and what they predict
about the future.
| The first and the second laws of
thermodynamics: |
The first law of
Thermodynamics is the
"law of conservation". It says that
energy can never be created or destroyed; it can only be
transformed from one form to another form. For example, when we
use petrol or gasoline in the engine of our car, most part of it
gets transformed into work, some of it changes into heat and some
part goes out as exhaust products.
Now, in relation to
this first
law, it is very
important to consider two things. One is that the shape, texture
and movement of everything is made up of energy. Not only
gasoline, coal or kerosene oil is made up of energy but rather
human body, an automobile and a candle also are embodiments of
various concentrations and transformations of energy. When a
candle or a car is made, it is made of energy that has been
gathered from somewhere else. It has not been created but
transformed. The second important thing to be considered in this
connection is that, when the candle is burnt, its energy does not
get destroyed but is transformed from one state into another so
that the total content of energy in the universe remains
constant. So, it is rightly said that "there is
nothing new under the sun."
The second law of
thermodynamics says
that every time energy is transformed from one state to another,
there is a loss in the amount of that form of energy, which
becomes available to perform work of some kind. The loss in the
amount of ‘available
energy’ is known as ‘entropy’. For example, if we burn a piece of coal,
even then the total amount of energy remains the same but, due to
the process of burning, some part of coal is transformed into
sulphur-dioxide and other gases which go out and spread into
space. Now, this part of the coal which has been transformed into
sulfur dioxide and exhausts cannot be reborn to get the same work
out of it. This
kind of loss, wastage or penalty, is called 'Entropy'. The
second law of Thermodynamics explains that the total entropy in the world is constantly
increasing. An entropy increase, therefore, means a decrease
in ‘available
energy’.
Further, not only does available energy decrease every time
something occurs in this world but the unavailable energy-form
works as pollution. Thus, according to the second law of
Thermodynamics, the world is moving towards a dissipated state
and the pollution in the world is constantly increasing.
Furthermore, "entropy", (i.e. the ‘unavailable’ energy
or pollution) in the world always tends towards a "maximum"
– says the German physicist, Rudolf Claussius (who first
coined the term ‘entropy’)- Rudolf Claussius further
says that, in a closed system, energy moves from a higher level
of concentration to a lower level as heat always flows from a hot
to a cold body so that, we find that, ultimately, they have
reached a stage where there is no longer any difference in energy
level. This
is known as ‘the equilibrium state’. This is the state where entropy has
reached the maximum. i.e. where no longer ‘free energy’
is available for work. For example, when water going over a dam
falls into a river, its energy can be used to generate
electricity, but, once it reaches the river level, it has no
‘free’ or ‘available’ energy. Its energy is
now ‘bound’ energy and it is now in the state of
equilibrium.
Now the important fact that needs be pointed out in
this context is that the earth is a closed
system in relation to the universe; in other words, it
exchanges energy but not matter with its surroundings. And the
universe itself also is a closed system in the sense that it does
not have any flow of energy from any other universe. The amount
of energy in the universe has been fixed since the beginning of
time and will remain fixed till the end of time. Such being the
case, the two laws of thermodynamics mean, in their final
analysis, that the fixed endowment of terrestrial matter that
makes up the earth and the mountains is continually dissipating
and what appear ‘renewable sources’ are really
non-renewable sources ultimately. In Sir James Jean’s words,
"The universe is like a clock which is running
down", which so far as science knows, no one ever
winds up. It is at present a partially wound up clock, which must
at some time in the past have been wound up in some manner
unknown to us. So, the universe is like a clock, running down,
whose entropy is increasing continually. Even a farmer
understands that, even with constant sunshine, it is impossible
to grow the same amount of grass on the same spot year after year
till eternity.
Now, these facts of
science, based on law of Thermodynamics, are well established. In
the past, there have been many attempts by well-known scientists
to challenge these laws but their attempts ended up in
strengthening the position of the second law.
| Another aspect of Entropy Law:
(from ordered to disordered state): |
Besides the energy moving from available to
unavailable states and from high concentration to low
concentration, there is another aspect of the second law of
Thermodynamics. Entropy Law states that all energy, in an
isolated system, moves from an ordered to a disordered state. The
state in which energy-concentration is highest and available
energy is maximum, i.e. where entropy is minimum, is also the
most ordered state. In Indian scriptures, that state is called Satogun. In contrast to this, the maximum entropy
state, where available energy has been highly dissipated state,
in Indian scriptures, it is known as Tamogun state.
The above is in accordance with our everyday
experience of the world around us. As things are let on their
own, they do tend to spontaneously move to more
and more dis-ordered states. If we leave our office unattended for a period, it
becomes more and more dis-orderly. Another aspect of the law is
that whenever we make an attempt to reverse the entropy increase,
it is only done by increasing the overall entropy of the
surrounding environment. The scientists Angsist and Hepler say:
"each local, man-made or machine-made entropy-decrease is
accompanied by a greater increase in entropy of the surroundings,
thereby maintaining the required increase in total entropy.
Now, this has very great implication for the
society. In practical terms, it means that the society
deteriorates and becomes disorganised gradually. There is
degeneration in its moral force, its spiritual stamina, the vigor
of its character, the effectiveness of its character, the
effectiveness of its religion and the sense of law and order. In
Hindu scriptures, it has, therefore, been said that the moral and
spiritual energy of the society goes on degenerating so that,
ultimately, it reaches a stage of maximum entropy when God has to
intervene to reverse the entropy and to bring about Satyuga or
Golden Age when all material things have maximum
energy-concentration, i.e. are Sato-pradhan and the souls also
have maximum ‘available’ moral and spiritual energy.
According to Dharma, the souls have originally 16 degrees(100%)
level of energy-concentraton and gradually due to entropy, the
energy level goes down so that when there is maximum entropy and
the level of energy-concentration is hardly one or two degrees, then God, the
Highest Point-source of Spiritual energy, reverses the spiritual
entropy by means of Godly Knowledge and Raj Yoga and the material entropy gets reversed by
means of fission of nuclear weapons, natural calamities etc. so
that the earth, the waters, the air and their products get again
the maximum energy-concentration or satopradhan stage. In other
words, when the society has passed through its four stages of
Satyuga, Tretayuga, Dwapur Yuga and Kaliyuga and is in the fifth,
i.e. the Sangam
Yuga (confluence
age), then God
descends to reverse the entropy. The need for God’s act in such a situation is
evident because, according to the Entropy Law, in a closed
system, entropy increase cannot be reversed without increasing
the entropy in the surroundings and therefore, in real terms, an
outside source of energy is required to raise the energy
concentration without lowering the energy level in the
surroundings.
It would be of interest to the readers to know that
the Greeks also considered history as a process of continual
degradation. The Greek historian-Hesiod, has described these
five ages as the Golden, Silver, Brass, iron and Heroic Age. The Greeks believed that each of the
succeeding Age was more degraded. The Golden Age was the highest.
It was a period of affluence and peace. The Belief was: "In
the beginning, there was a golden race of immortal men, who lived
like gods, with hearts free from care, without labour and sorrow.
Pitiful old age did not await them, but they were ever the same
in strength of hand and foot. When they died, it was as though
they were overcome by sleep. All good things were theirs and the
grain harvest was yielded by the bountiful earth of her own
accord--abundantly and ungrudgingly – while they lived in
peace and goodwill upon their lands.
The following is what has been said about the Iron
Age: "For now, in these latter days is the Race of
Iron. Never by days shall they rest from travail and sorrow, and
never by night from the web of the vices. The father shall not be
of one mind with the children, nor the children with the father,
nor the guest with the host that receives them, nor friends with
friends. Parents shall swiftly age and swiftly be dishonoured.
The righteous man or the good man or he that keeps his oath shall
not find favour, but they shall rather honour the doer of wrong
and the right shall rest in might of hand--and truth shall be no
more."
The Greeks believed not only in inevitable
process of decay during the each subsequent age of
history but, they also believed that, finally the universe would
approach chaos and then God would intervene once again and
restore the original conditions of moral and material perfection,
so that the process would then begin once again. Thus, they did
not believe in the evolution of man from the state of chaos or
disorder to a state of civilisation and development but from a
state of perfection to a state of moral degeneration and also in
repetition of the world cycle.
Similarly, the Romans
also originally believed in a process of continual
degradation. In Roman mythology, it is said: "Time
depreciates the value of the world." The Christian view of
history is also almost the same. Though they abandoned the Greek
concept of cycles--they believe that, originally, God created man
in His own image and sin entered into the world later.
Entropy Law and
Evolution:
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The second law of Thermodynamics, as explained
here-above, points out, that "The universe is like a clock
which is running down." But, the evolutionists say that the world has been
building up from simpler to more complex forms over billions of
years. Evidently, this view of the evolutionists is contrary to
the well-established second law of thermodynamics. For, in actual
practice, we observe that the changes in the physical unvierse
are caused by running down and not by building up. For example,
complex atoms, like those of uranium and thorium disintergarate
into less complex ones like radium or lead, but it has never been
in the reverse order. The complex stars also break down into
nebulae and this happens in a few hours’ time, as observed
at present: it does not happen in millions of years. Similarly,
the sun burns about 250 million tons of matter per minute. Such a
huge process of annihilation must have been going on in the stars
also, Evidently, it is not a process of building up of energy or
of evolution of more complex forms but it is a process of
dissipation and disintergration into simple forms. The
theory of evolution, being contradictory to this well-established
law, is erroneous. Sullivan says, in his book
‘Limitation of Science’: "One of the least
disputable laws of Physical Science states that the universe is
steadily running down. We live in a wasting universe. But the fact that the energy of the
universe will be more disorganised tomorrow than it is today
implies, of course, that the energy of the universe was more
highly organised yesterday than it is today. Following the
process backward, we find a more and more highly organised
universe. This backward tracing of time cannot be continued
indefinitely. Organisation cannot, as it were, mount up and up
without limit. There is a definite maximum, which must have been
in existence a finite time ago. And it is impossible that this
state of perfect organisation could have been evolved from some
less perfect state. Nor is it possible that the universe could
have persisted from eternity in that state of perfect
organisation. Thus the accepted laws of nature lead us to a
definite beginning of the universe in time."
In the light of the
above, it would be only natural and proper to conclude that the
theory of evolution is wrong and that the world has been
undergoing a process of degeneration from Golden Age to the
present Iron Age and this process has taken a finite period,
extending over not millions of years, but only some thousands of
years – 5000
years to be exact. Om shanti.
