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EVOLUTIONISM AND THE PRINCIPLE OF MAXIMUM POWER
Gerardus D.
Bouw, Ph.D. Introduction Theistic
Evolutionists generally argue that a billions-of-years old universe reveals a
more powerful God than does a recent, 6,000-year-old universe. In this paper
we refute that argument. Power
and Glory The
belief that power is to be identified with God's glory is an assumption which
is not necessarily Biblical. Thus we read in I Kings 19:11-131 that God was neither in the strong wind
that rent the mountains, nor in the earthquake, nor in the fire; but he was
in the “still, small voice.” In other words, God was not in the
demonstrations of great power, but he was in the weakest form possible.
Likewise, God was born in a manger and allowed himself to be crucified. True
enough, he could have called 10,000 angels and delivered himself from the
cross; but that was not where the glory lay. So in this first assumption, an
evolutionist is only fooling him self if he thinks that the more power there
is exhibited or used in the universe, that this means more glory is revealed
for God. But there is more to the issue of power than this simple approach. What is Power? In physics, power (P) is defined as
the amount of work performed (W) in some time (t). Placed in a
formula, this reads: P = W
/ t. (1) Likewise, work is the amount of force (F)
which is exerted over some distance, (D). Again, as a formula this is
written as: W = F .
D. (2) Actually, work and energy are related. Both
have the same units of mass times length-squared times speed-squared (for
example, gram cm2/sec2, witness E=mc2).
The only difference is that power implies some flow of energy over time. To
keep things simple, in what follows we shall assume that all energy created
by God resides either in matter or else it resides in motion. This means that
we view the situation at creation as if God did all the work necessary to
create the universe; that he had no “outside” help. Such a view is entirely
consistent with Scripture. In fact, as we shall shortly see, Scripture
presents power as more fundamental to the physical realm than is energy. By
contrast, modern physics views energy as the more fundamental of the two.
Power, then, is the flow of energy over time. There is one other aspect of power which we
should consider when it comes to looking at the role of power in the
universe. When God created the universe, he expended power doing so. Thus,
although mass is one form of energy, the creation of that energy meant that
God spent some power in its creation and that said power now resides in the
material itself, independent of any motion that God might have imparted on
the material at its creation. Given that power is the flow of energy, we
can rewrite equation (1) as: P = E
/ t (3) or, rearranging terms: E = P t. (4) Now this last formula is the one which the
theistic evolutionist has in mind when he claims that the evolutionary model
displays a more powerful God. Here is how the evolutionist approaches the
issue: “Consider how much longer 20 billion years is when compared to 6,000
years. The former is roughly 30 million times greater than the latter. This
means that God expends 30 million times more power in an evolutionary
universe than he would in a Special Creationist universe.” But is this
correct? Types of Energy Energy can be thought to exist in several
forms. We have all heard of Einstein's famous E=mc2 formula which
states that matter is nothing more than “frozen” energy: energy that is “frozen”
into atoms instead of flying around in electromagnetic waves or some other
form. This is called the “rest-mass energy” and is usually denoted by the
symbol “E0.” In addition, matter can be in motion and so we
can associate an additional energy: an energy of motion called Kinetic
Energy, which is usually abbreviated to the symbol “T.” A third
form of energy, too often ignored, is spin-energy (Es = Iw2/2, where I is the moment of inertia and w is the
angular velocity or the rotation speed). Yet another form of energy is called
Potential Energy, “V,” which is not really energy which a body “has”
but energy which it could pick up from its position. The total energy, E,
is thus: E = E0
+ T + V + Es. (5) As an example of potential energy, consider:
if I stand holding a book then relative to the floor under it, the book has
no kinetic energy (since it is not moving with respect to the floor) but it
does have a potential energy. In order to impart that potential energy to the
book all I have to do is to let go of it. The book starts to fall, converting
the potential energy into kinetic energy until it hits the floor at which
point all the potential energy that it picked up as kinetic energy will be
imparted to the floor as heat and sound and, possibly, damage to the
structure of the book, floor, carpet, etc. In this entire process, the rest
mass energy of the book remained unchanged. The First Law of Thermodynamics Now given that energy is viewed by modern
physics as a fundamental property of nature, how can we reconcile that with these
different types of energy, some of which, like potential energy, seem to be a
bit arbitrary? (For example, if there were a table under my book, in the
above illustration of potential energy, then the potential energy is lowered,
even though the position of the book is unchanged as far as the floor is
concerned.) The reason why energy is considered fundamental is because energy
can neither be created or destroyed. This principle, called ”conservation of
energy” (before the ecologists misappropriated the term to mean fuel
conservation), is also known as the first law of thermodynamics . In
particular, if we take all of the energy in the universe—rest-mass, kinetic,
spin-energy and potential—and represent it with the symbol EU,
then the first law of thermodynamics states that: EU = constant. (6) The only problem is that we do not know what
the exact value of that constant is. The First Law in Terms of Power All of the
above is good and well, but how does it relate to the theistic evolutionists'
claims that the old universe reflects a more powerful image of God? It turns out that we can restate the
first law in terms of power instead of energy. If we take the derivative of EU over
time, we end up with the statement: dEU/dt = 0. (7) But by equation (3) we see that dE/dt
is the definition of power, so that formula (7) is really is a statement
about power. The first law of
thermodynamics can also be viewed as stating that the amount of power in the
universe is constant: that power can neither be created or destroyed. In
other words, there is no new power flowing into the universe or being
newly-created. This can be stated as: PU = constant. (8) Now this is a surprising result and
absolutely fatal to the theistic evolutionists' arguments; for it says that
the amount of power in the 20- billion year old universe is exactly the same
as exists in the 6,000-year old universe! The conclusion drawn by the evolutionist from equation (4)
actually violates the first law of thermodynamics because it assumes that the
expenditure (flow) of power is the same as the creation of power! Creative Power Let us now return to the issue of that other
aspect of the power debate between creationist and evolutionist, the amount
of power needed to create the universe. One might think, for example, that
since the young universe model requires that God expand the universe (he does
say that he “stretched out the heavens,” after all,) far in excess of the
speed of light, that the power needed to create it is infinite. After all,
the reasoning goes, doesn't it take an infinite amount of energy to push
matter beyond the speed of light? Since the various models of the big-bang do
not need an infinite amount of energy, it would superficially seem that the
Special Creationist model is the more powerful. So the creationist might
argue that the intervening billions of years do not begin to make up for the
infinite power needed to create the universe to its full extent 6,000 years
ago. In this, the creationist would be mistaken.
One can construct an inflationary model of the universe which could inflate
to its present size in one week or one day. For example, the first
inflationary universe model developed around 1972 had the universe expanding
to its present state in only 100,000 years: far too short for evolution to
have taken place. As a result it was considered an oddity. It was not until
the initial conditions and various parameter could be fudged to stretch it
out to 15 billion years that the model gained wide-spread interest among
astrophysicists and cosmologist. Surely the effort could have been spent to
go in the other direction, toward a younger age. After all, 100,000 years to
10,000,000,000 years is 5 orders of magnitude, whereas going from 100,000 to
10,000 years is only one order of magnitude. The upshot is that in the creationist model,
since God is omnipresent he needed only to have expended an average of about
10-8 ergs/cm3 to create the universe. This is the same
as in the evolutionists' model, and so arguments of this nature are made
moot. But Hebrews 1… If power is neither being created nor
destroyed, merely flowing from one point to another in the universe, then
does this not violate Hebrews 1:3? In that verse we read of Jesus: Who being
the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and
upholding all things by the word of his power…. Note that the verse says that
he is “upholding all things by the word of his power,” not by power.
True, the “upholding” indicates an on-going action; but it is by fiat. The
text could just as well be taken to mean that God distributes power as he
wills. This is clearly indicated by Christ's answer to Pilate when he said: “Thou
couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from
above” (John 19:11). Likewise, the creation is said to be finished. So God
still works,2 and the
Bible reports that he is still creating new things, but he is not creating
any new power, at least not on a continuing basis. Now this requires that we
take a finer look at the role of power in the Bible. Biblical Power Most of Christianity today assumes that God
created the universe ex nihilo, out of nothing. If by that we mean
that God did not form the universe out of pre-existing matter, then that is
correct. If we mean, on the other hand, that God changed nothing into the
creation, then we are mistaken. The Bible tells a different story. First of all, in the Bible we find that God's
power is invisible for we read in Romans 1:20— For the
invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen,
being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and
Godhead; so that they are without excuse .Likewise, we read in Romans 9:22— What if God,
willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much
longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction. The first reference says that both the
eternal power of God and the Godhead are invisible. The second reference
tells us that the revelation of his power is one of the reasons why God
created the universe: “to make his power known.” (Be sure to read verse 23 for the rest of the reasons for
the creation). So though it be a fine point, it seems more correct to claim
that the universe was created from and by God's power, (which is not “nothing,”)
than it is to say God created the universe out of nothing. In addition to power's role in the creation,
we note that nowhere in the Bible is the word “energy” to be found. The word “power,”
though, occurs over 270 times. So it is clear that to the Bible, power is
more fundamental than energy, that God is the originator of the power and
that he channels power where he will and when he wills it. The Biblical
concept of power is more general than is the physicist's concept, but there
is still a relationship as noted in Romans 1:20. Power and Salvation Anyone who has studied the Bible or who has
read it through carefully knows that the Bible teaches that salvation is by grace,
not of works. In the above formulations we see that this fact is imprinted in
the creation itself. All attempts to “better” ourselves and to make us “worthy”
of salvation—to gain power with God—amount to a hoarding of power for
ourselves at the expense of others in general and God in particular. This
concept is abhorrent to God. By the same token, we can deal with
salvation-by-works in terms of work and energy. It is a fundamental fact of
physics that any amount of work (any expenditure of power) increases the
entropy of the universe. Now entropy is, in part, an increase in the disorder
of the universe. Entropy is also related to death and sin, as has been noted
by numerous creationists. The greater the entropy in human affairs, the more
death and sin. Thus to try to work one's way to heaven is totally futile, for
our works end up defiling the entire creation. The more we work, the greater
the defilement and the more death and sin there is in the world. True, the
Bible does encourage us to do “good works,” but it defines those works as
doing the will of the Father. According to the Bible, we are created unto good
works, but we are not created for good works.3
The distinction is crucial. It means that only a saved man can do good works.
The unsaved can not. One would think that feeding the poor would qualify as a
”good work,” regardless of the state of one's soul. Not so, according to
Proverbs 21:4, for there we find that “the plowing of the wicked, is sin.” No
exception is made for motive: it is sin, period. Conclusion We have found arguments dealing with the
question of which takes more of an expenditure of power on God's part, the
big-bang and subsequent evolution of the universe, or the creation of a
fully-mature universe within one week some 6,000 years ago, to be
meaningless. The amount of power God needed to expend in both models is the
same, namely the existing energy density. We noted that this is so because of
the first law of thermodynamics, that energy can neither be created nor
destroyed. This was discovered by reformulating the first law in terms of
power in which case it says that the amount of power in the universe is fixed
and that all work done in the universe amounts to nothing more than a
rearrangement of that finite, fixed amount of power. In connection with the discussion of power we
looked at the Bible's usage of the word and discovered that the power of God
is reckoned as one of God's invisible attributes which is revealed in his
creation. Nowhere in the Bible is the conservation of power contradicted, and
nowhere is the word “energy” to be found. Since energy and power are related,
and since nothing ever truly stands still, we concluded that power is a more
basic constituent of the creation than is energy. So the next time an evolutionist tells you
that the evolutionary model is more glorifying to God because it requires a
greater expenditure of energy on his part, tell him to check that statement
against the first law of thermodynamics. Or else, show him this paper. NOTES AND REFERENCES 1 And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the
mount before the LORD. And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and
strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD;
but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the
LORD was not in the earthquake: 2 By the way, since Jesus reported that the “Father
still worketh hitherto” in John 5:17, he contradicts the day-age theistic
evolutionist who maintains that we are presently in the seventh “day” of
creation, the day in which “God rested” (Genesis 2:1). Note, too, that the
evolutionist must insist that “rested” there be read as “is resting.” 3 Ephesians 2:10—For we are his workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that
we should walk in them. Updated on 28 December, 1999 by GDB
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