Steiger’s Brand of Thermodynamics
Frank Steiger has published two essays in the Talk.Origin archive, in which he does a respectable job of iterating the common evolutionist answer to this problem. But while the answer he presents may be adequate to convince many willing believers in evolutionism, careful examination proves it to be nothing less than the same inadequate work-around commonly served up as an answer to second law objections.
Steiger also wrongly attributes false and misleading claims to his creationist counterparts, which, if taken at face value, would lend to Steiger much more relative credibility than he otherwise deserves. Add this to his failure to meet the second law’s challenge to evolutionism, and Steiger’s work is reduced in simple terms to the same old song and dance with a few pot shots thrown in for effect.
Not far into the more lengthy of his two Talk.Origins essays (“The Second Law of Thermodynamics, Evolution, and Probability”), Steiger attributes to “creationists” a:
wide-spread and totally false belief that the second law of thermodynamics does not permit order to spontaneously arise from disorder.
…which he then attempts to dispute by means of a grossly erroneous generalization:
In fact, there are many examples in nature where order does arise spontaneously from disorder: Snowflakes with their six-sided crystalline symmetry are formed spontaneously from randomly moving water vapor molecules. Salts with precise planes of crystalline symmetry form spontaneously when water evaporates from a solution. Seeds sprout into flowering plants and eggs develop into chicks.
The “order” found in a snowflake or a crystal has nothing to do with increased information, organization or complexity, or available energy (i.e., reduced entropy). The formation of molecules or atoms into geometric patterns such as snowflakes or crystals reflects movement towards equilibrium—a lower energy level, and a more stable arrangement of the molecules or atoms into simple, uniform, repeating structures with minimal complexity, and no function. These are not examples of matter forming itself into more organized or more complex structures or systems (as postulated in evolutionist theory), even though they may certainly reflect “order” in the form of simple patterns.
Steiger fails to recognize the profound difference between these examples of low-energy molecular crystals and the high-energy growth process of living organisms (seeds sprouting into flowering plants and eggs developing into chicks). His equating these two very different phenomena reveals a serious misunderstanding of thermodynamics (as well as molecular biology) on his part, and he perpetuates this error in the balance of both his essays, as we shall see.
On the other hand, Jeffrey Wicken (an evolutionist) has no problem recognizing the difference, having described it this way:
“‘Organized’ systems are to be carefully distinguished from ‘ordered’ systems. Neither kind of system is ‘random,’ but whereas ordered systems are generated according to simple algorithms and therefore lack complexity, organized systems must be assembled element by element according to an external ‘wiring diagram’ with a high information content … Organization, then, is functional complexity and carries information. It is non-random by design or by selection, rather than by the a priori necessity of crystallographic ‘order.’”
[Jeffrey S. Wicken, The Generation of Complexity in Evolution: A Thermodynamic and Information-Theoretical Discussion, Journal of Theoretical Biology, Vol. 77 (April 1979), p. 349]
Nobel Prize winner Ilya Prigogine also has no problem defining the difference:
“The point is that in a non-isolated [open] system there exists a possibility for formation of ordered, low-entropy structures at sufficiently low temperatures. This ordering principle is responsible for the appearance of ordered structures such as crystals as well as for the phenomena of phase transitions. Unfortunately this principle cannot explain the formation of biological structures.”
[I. Prigogine, G. Nicolis and A. Babloyants, Physics Today 25(11):23 (1972)]
Thaxton, Bradley, and Olsen make the same clear distinction:
“As ice forms, energy (80 calories/gm) is liberated to the surroundings… The entropy change is negative because the thermal configuration entropy (or disorder) of water is greater than that of ice, which is a highly ordered crystal… It has often been argued by analogy to water crystallizing to ice that simple monomers may polymerize into complex molecules such as protein and DNA. The analogy is clearly inappropriate, however… The atomic bonding forces draw water molecules into an orderly crystalline array when the thermal agitation (or entropy driving force) is made sufficiently small by lowering the temperature. Organic monomers such as amino acids resist combining at all at any temperature, however, much less in some orderly arrangement.”
[C.B. Thaxton, W.L. Bradley, and R.L. Olsen, The Mystery of Life’s Origin: Reassessing Current Theories, Philosophical Library, New York, 1984, pp. 119-120.]
Steiger’s blurring of the distinction between these two phenomena can logically be attributed only to either indefensible ignorance or a willful misrepresentation of the facts.
Later, Steiger declares that:
…a system can go from a more probable state to a less probable state, providing
S for the system is negative. In cases where the system interacts with its surroundings,
Don’t be alarmed. By way of explanation, “
S” simply refers to change in entropy. A positive change (increase) in entropy is the general, universal tendency as described above (=less order, complexity, available energy, a more random, disorderly, and probable state). A negative change (decrease) in entropy is invariably an isolated and temporary event (=more order, complexity, available energy, a less random, disorderly, and probable state).
This profound statement on Steiger’s part, then, is simply stating the obvious—restating the second law in terms of a system’s more or less “probable state” as a direct consequence of the respective increase or decrease in entropy. He correctly acknowledges that a less probable state may be reached by a system, only as long as it is an “open” system (i.e., able to interact with its surroundings) and there is an external increase in entropy exceeding the measure of system’s internal decrease in entropy.
It is significant that Steiger does not take the time here to consider whether such a phenomenon tends to happen spontaneously, routinely, or with any constancy—without a directing program (e.g., DNA) and a means of energy storage and conversion (e.g., photosynthesis, metabolism) in any living organism (as described earlier). A declaration that a theoretical decrease in entropy is possible serves little in explaining biological processes and their relationships to energy and organized complexity. Steiger seems to avoid altogether any discussion of how biological processes achieve and sustain the very decrease in entropy which he goes to great lengths to demonstrate as mathematically “possible.”
In fairness, it must be said here that the thermodynamicist need not concern himself with the “how” (i.e., the process) of a matter in order to generate the mathematical calculations of entropy change from the beginning to the end of any theorized event. However, we must remember that the ability to calculate this change on paper by no means renders the event likely, or even possible.
Classical Thermodynamics may thus be employed to postulate the alleged entropy change of an event (e.g., spontaneous generation, or a macro-evolutionary event), apart from defining or identifying a mechanism or means by which the event could conceivably take place. Yet the barrier of the “generalized 2nd law” remains firmly in place and applicable to probability of distribution matters in Information Theory (e.g., the increase and preservation of information contained in genetic code), as well as that of statistic entropy and its applicability to systems (e.g., highly complex and integrated biological systems found in all living organisms).
In any case, Steiger goes on to observe that:
…when living things decay after death, the process of decay takes place with an increase in entropy … a spontaneous change in a system can be reversed, providing the system interacts with its surroundings in such a manner that the entropy increase in the surroundings is more than enough to reverse the system’s original entropy increase.
(One can’t help but wonder whether this paragraph is meant as an attempt to go beyond the myth of spontaneous generation to suggest the notion of spontaneous resurrection!) In any case, Steiger continues:
The application of energy can reverse a spontaneous, thermodynamically “irreversible” reaction. Leaves will spontaneously burn (combine with oxygen) to form water and carbon dioxide. The sun’s energy, through the process of photosynthesis, will produce leaves from water vapor and carbon dioxide, and form oxygen.
Apart from his ostensible intention to portray these two processes as “reversals” of one another, it seems to have escaped Steiger’s notice that the process photosynthesis does not function apart from the complex cellular apparatus inherent in leaves—it does not “produce” leaves, but is an inherent function of them. To postulate photosynthesis as a non-biological, independent “leave-producing” phenomenon is to misrepresent it entirely.
Now we come to some of Steiger’s best material. Still emphasizing the possibility of reversibility, he tells us:
If we unplug a refrigerator, heat will flow to the interior from the surroundings; the entropy increase inside the refrigerator will be greater than the entropy decrease in the surroundings, and the net entropy change is positive. If we plug it in, this spontaneous “irreversible” change is reversed. Due to the input of electrical energy to the compressor, the heat transferred to the surroundings from the condenser coils is greater than the heat extracted from the refrigerator, and the entropy increase of the surroundings is greater than the entropy decrease of the interior, in spite of the fact that the surroundings are at a higher temperature. Here again, the net entropy change is positive, as would be expected for any spontaneous process.
While serving as an excellent model of thermodynamics in action, Steiger’s refrigerator does still more in that it demonstrates the need for an energy conversion mechanism before a deliberate, sustained decrease in entropy is possible. Furthermore, the starting and stopping of the machine’s compressor can hardly be described as “spontaneous” events—they are the planned, willful, and deliberate actions of intelligent agents, executed with a view to accomplishing specific end results.
As if this splendid refrigerator weren’t enough, Steiger also shares the following model (popular among evolutionists) with his readers:
If a water wheel is connected by shafts, belts, pulleys, etc. to a pump, the pump can raise water from the downstream side of the water wheel to an elevation even higher than that of the upstream reservoir. Some of the water would spontaneously raise itself to an elevation even higher than original, but the rest of it would end up below the water wheel on the downstream side.While it is not possible for all of the water to raise itself to an elevation higher than its initial elevation, it is possible for some of the water to spontaneously raise itself to an elevation higher than initial.
Once again we are looking at a carefully designed and implemented mechanism for creating and sustaining an apparent decrease in entropy. One is compelled to wonder why Mr. Steiger must rely only on man-made mechanisms to illustrate his claim that “spontaneous entropy decreases can, and do, occur all the time”—ostensibly requiring neither design, plan nor storage or conversion of energy!
But wait! There’s more! Not only are we invited to pretend along with Mr. Steiger that he has demonstrated spontaneous generation to be thermodynamically possible—even probable, but we are quickly assured that we need not concern ourselves with the details of “how”:
The fact that the water wheel and pump are man-built contraptions has no bearing on the case: thermodynamics does not concern itself with the detailed description of a system…
Here Steiger blithely excuses himself from facing a most profound fact: Spontaneous, sustained decreases in entropy do not occur in nature apart from the presence of a design or plan and a means of storing and/or converting energy. To declare that this “has no bearing on the case” is to betray (or feign) an utter ignorance of the roles played in biological processes by energy and the work that produces organized complexity—matters that most certainly involve thermodynamic relationships (particularly involving the “generalized 2nd law” and informational, as well as statistical entropy, as discussed above).
Complexity Simplified(?)
Now Steiger takes on the task of redefining complexity so that his readers will find the improbable at least believable—if not inevitable:
A favorite argument of creationists is that the probability of evolution occurring is about the same as the probability that a tornado blowing through a junkyard could form an airplane……A simpler analogy to the airplane/junkyard scenario would be the stacking of three blocks neatly on top of each other. To do this, intelligent design is required, but stacking does not violate the laws of thermodynamics … all that is required is the energy to pick them up and place them one on top of the other…
What Steiger fails to tell his readers is that the airplane/junkyard scenario stands up to probability analysis, as indicated by his need to substitute a block-stacking illustration, completely side-stepping the thermodynamic improbability of evolution. Having briefly alluded to the problem, he quickly and effectively ignores it by changing the subject!
In concluding his “Probability” essay, Steiger asserts that:
…The creationist position would necessarily discard the entire mathematical framework of thermodynamics and would provide no basis for the engineering design of turbines, refrigeration units, industrial pumps, etc. It would do away with the well-developed mathematical relationships of physical chemistry, including the effect of temperature and pressure on equilibrium constants and phase changes.
This accusation finds no support in the balance of his essay, so one wonders on what basis Steiger feels qualified to register it. This writer knows of no “creationist position” concerning thermodynamics other than the classic understanding. That creationists point out the conflict between thermodynamics and evolutionist doctrine is no more a questionable “position” than if on a similar basis they were to say that boulders are unlikely to spontaneously levitate.
Steiger’s own distortion of the facts of thermodynamics and biological process seems to indicate that it is in fact his “position” that challenges reality, for if he were right, such things as turbines, refrigeration units, industrial pumps, etc., would require no design at all, and would function satisfactorily with no energy storage or conversion devices!
To more accurately restate one of Steiger’s parting shots in the essay:
evolutionism (in the guise of “scientific fact”) doesn’t have to be consistent with the laws of thermodynamics.
Attributing (More) False Attributes to Thermodynamics
Although much of what is said in Steiger’s second essay (“Attributing False Attributes to Thermodynamics”) has already been dealt with above, some of his claims deserve special treatment.
Briefly, in the “False Attributes” essay Steiger repeats the error of blurring the distinction between the high-energy growth process of living organisms (“seeds growing into trees, eggs developing into chicks”) and low-energy formation molecular crystals (“crystalline salts form when a solution evaporates, and crystalline snowflakes form from randomly moving water vapor molecules”).
In this essay, however, he goes a step further, claiming falsely that creationists insist that for both of these phenomena “there must be a programmed energy conversion mechanism to direct the application of the energy needed to bring about the change.” Thus, having confused two very different processes for his readers by describing them as similar, he falsely accuses creationists of a sweeping generalization which they do not make—effectively setting up for his personal refutation a straw-man postulate.
Next, attempting to relegate “changes requiring human thought and effort” to a place outside the realm of thermodynamic analysis, Steiger attempts to ridicule the prospect that systems concerned with “constructing a building, manufacturing an airplane, making a bed… etc.,” involve thermodynamics, implying that the changes in entropy inherent in the associated systems and processes are not covered by the science of thermodynamics. (Apparently Steiger does not believe the laws of thermodynamics to be universal.)
Among the claims attributed to creationists, Steiger says the “energy conversion mechanism” required for biological life (as described above) “comes from God.” Note that neither Steiger, nor any evolutionist, has produced a plausible naturalistic explanation for the origin of such a complex and essential biological process as an energy conversion mechanism (e.g., photosynthesis in plants, metabolism in animals).
[These (and a host of other no less complex, highly integrated, biological systems and structures) bear every indication of functional, purpose-oriented design. But this completely escapes the notice of the likes of Steiger, whose apparent commitment to defining “science” as the application of only naturalistic philosophy to the study of the natural world forbids them from seriously considering the logical implication of the evidence.]Another claim of Steiger is that “The ICR chapter [chapter 3 of “Scientific Creationism,” edited by Henry Morris of the Institute for Creation Research] states flatly that entropy can never decrease.” This is an outright falsehood. Whether deliberate or not, it is an indefensible misrepresentation of the publication cited, the author of the publication, and creationists in general. (Noteworthy is the fact that Steiger’s essay conveniently “neglects” to cite the page on which Morris supposedly “states flatly” that “entropy can never decrease”—most likely due to there not actually being such a page in Morris’ book.)
Again refusing to face reality, Steiger claims that:
There is no need to postulate an energy conversion mechanism. Thermodynamics correlates, with mathematical equations, information relating to the interaction of heat and work. It does not speculate as to the mechanisms involved… Although it is reasonable to assume that complex energy conversion mechanisms actually exist, the manner in which these may operate is outside the scope of thermodynamics. Assigning an energy conversion mechanism to thermodynamics is simply a ploy to distort and pervert the true nature of thermodynamics.
First we are told that no energy conversion mechanism need be accounted for. Then it is inferred (again) that the changes in (and relationships between) heat and work within biological processes are somehow outside the realm of thermodynamics. Next comes a concession that, okay, it is “reasonable to assume” that such conversion mechanisms “actually exist” (whew!), yet we are now firmly assured that the changes in (and relationships between) heat and work within biological processes are surely “outside the scope of thermodynamics”—and to disagree with Steiger here is to “distort and pervert the true nature of thermodynamics”!
What’s wrong with this picture? Since when do the changes in (and relationships between) heat and work within biological processes (e.g., photosynthesis and metabolism) fall “outside the scope” of thermodynamics? Under what branch of scientific analysis are these thermodynamic relationships to be understood if not that of thermodynamics? By what natural laws are they governed, if not those of thermodynamics?
It seems that it is not the creationists who “distort and pervert the true nature of thermodynamics.” At least they recognize the universal application of thermodynamic principles to all processes involving heat, work, and the relationships between the two—both on paper (i.e., mathematically defined) and in every real-world process in which they are found.
Tired as it is, Steiger’s effort to define molecular biological processes as “outside the scope” of thermodynamics is renewed in his claim that:
The use and application of thermodynamics is strictly limited by the mathematical treatment of the basic equations… There is no provision … for any mechanism that would overcome the laws of thermodynamics… Thermodynamics is limited by the equations and mathematics… If it can’t be expressed mathematically, it isn’t thermodynamics!
It seems fair to say at this point that Frank Steiger hasn’t done the math (or his biology homework)—and this seems to be his sole basis for these declarations, designed to evade entirely the perennial issue of life’s ability to thrive in apparent contradiction to thermodynamic law.
Finally, Steiger concludes by erroneously claiming that “Creationism would replace mathematics with metaphors… Creationists have created a ‘voodoo’ thermodynamics … in order to convince those not familiar with real thermodynamics that their sectarian religious views have scientific validity.”
Let the reader be the judge. If the laws of thermodynamics are universally applicable to all processes and systems (and according to respected science authorities they are), by what right does Frank Steiger selectively label as mere “metaphors” those highly complex processes and systems which produce and sustain the even more highly complex, integrated machinery of biological life?
Both Cannot be Correct
That someone is practicing “voodoo” thermodynamics is not at issue here. The question is who? The following statements—complete with metaphors(!)—from respected (evolutionist) scientists don’t seem to reflect Steiger’s perspective, effectively indicating that it is he who has resorted to distorting and perverting the true nature of thermodynamics in order to convince his readers that his naturalistic religious views have scientific validity:
“The thermodynamicist immediately clarifies the latter question by pointing out that … biological systems are open, and exchange both energy and matter. The explanation, however, is not completely satisfying, because it still leaves open the problem of how or why the ordering process has arisen (an apparent lowering of the entropy), and a number of scientists have wrestled with this issue. Bertalanffy (1968) called the relation between irreversible thermodynamics and information theory one of the most fundamental unsolved problems in biology.”
[C. J. Smith, Biosystems 1:259 (1975)]
“We have repeatedly emphasized the fundamental problems posed for the biologist by the fact of life’s complex organization. We have seen that organization requires work for its maintenance and that the universal quest for food is in part to provide the energy needed for this work. But the simple expenditure of energy is not sufficient to develop and maintain order. A bull in a china shop performs work but he neither creates nor maintains organization. The work needed is particular work; it must follow specifications; it requires information on how to proceed.”
[G.G. Simpson and W.S. Beck, Life: An Introduction to Biology, Harcourt, Brace, and World, New York, 1965, p. 465]
“Closely related to the apparent ‘paradox’ of ongoing uphill processes in nonliving systems is the apparent ‘paradox’ of spontaneous self-organization in nature. It is one thing for an internally organized, open system to foster uphill processes by tapping downhill ones, but how did the required internal organization come about in the first place? Indeed the so-called dissipative structures that produce uphill processes are highly organized (low entropy) molecular ensembles, especially when compared to the dispersed arrays fro which they assembled. Hence, the question of how they could originate by natural processes has proved a challenging one.”
[J.W. Patterson, Scientists Confront Creationism, L:R: Godfrey, Ed., W.W. Norton & Company, New York, 1983, p. 110]
We are faced with a choice between accepting the universal applicability of the laws of thermodynamics as generally understood, or believing that the likes of Frank Steiger are justified in their efforts to drive a wedge of semantic confusion between those laws and the postulates of evolutionism.
We have seen that (contrary to Steiger’s false accusations) the principles of thermodynamics are neither ignored nor altered by those creationists who describe them as universally applicable, demonstrating their relationships with biological processes.
We have seen how Steiger has repeatedly attempted to blur the distinction between dramatically different processes; has denied the applicability of thermodynamics to heat and work relationships within biological processes; has ignored the applicability of informational entropy and statistical entropy to the biological processes and properties of all living organisms; has falsely attributed obviously erroneous statements to creationist publications; and has generally turned a blind eye to the challenge posed to evolutionism by the realities of thermodynamic principles.
It must be emphasized that Frank Steiger is not alone. The above practices are not uncommon among many hard-core evolutionists. Whether theirs is at all a reasonable, rational faith seems clear in the methodologies they employ in its defence. The plain facts of science will remain neither ignored nor hidden in the long run, however, and many respectable evolutionist authorities resort to neither tactic, preferring to acknowledge such problems as those raised by the science of thermodynamics.
Unfortunately for all evolutionists, such problems show no intention of going away.
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