The Entropy Law

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:

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

It is difficult but challenging