That which is crooked cannot be made straight.
(Ecclesiastes 1:15)
"First let me tell you what I shan't discuss,"
The Physicist began. " 'Don't burden us,'
I'm sure you're thinking, 'with the Standard Model.'1
When physicists speak on their work, a lot'll
Begin with quarks--most elementary
Of particles, the 'up' and 'down' quarks, c
Or 'charm' quark, 'strange' quark (these are 'flavors'), 'top'
And 'bottom' quarks as well--though we can't stop
With those, for other particles we call
The leptons go with quarks to make up all
Of ordinary matter. 2 'Please spare us
A talk on the atomic nucleus,'
You're thinking. (Nuclei consist, of course,
Of protons and neutrons, which the strong force
Binds--they're made of quarks--while those leptons
We call electrons circle round.) Photons
Are particles of light, and then there are
Neutrinos, and--Now see, I've gone too far.
What we in physics call the Standard Model
I needn't cover. And that's not to coddle
Creationists, it's just that quarks and such
In this debate don't really matter much.
There is no controversy about whether
Such things exist. Christ 'holds all things together,'
Paul wrote to the Colossians, and to us
That would include the atom's nucleus--
So says the ICR. 3 They also see
Christ glorified in the duality
Of light (in quantum theory light's a wave
And particle as well), for in it they've
Found Christ's dual nature (God and man); they see
This nature too in relativity 4--
The special theory on equivalence
Of mass and energy. If it makes sense
To them to find religious metaphor
In everything, that's fine. I can't ignore,
However, how creationists abuse
Us physicists by claiming we misuse
Radiometric dating. That will be
Discussed; I'll also cover entropy,
And how new forms of order that we've seen
Spontaneously arise--what Prigogine
Calls 'dissipative structures'--help negate
The claim that things evolving violate
The second law of thermodynamics.
I'll mention, too, another of the tricks
Used by proponents of creationism,
And that's the claim that geomagnetism
Helps 'prove' the Earth is young. That properly
Should have been covered with geology."Now the Geologist put in a word
Or two here, though they sounded rather slurred.
He said, "I left out geomagnetism
To show you, sir, a little altruism,
I thought I'd leave you something good to say.
And you are so magnetic anyway."The Physicist looked nettled by the joke.
"I think you've poured enough into your Coke,
Whatever's in that flask," he said. "I bit
My tongue when you messed up on who first hit
On seafloor spreading. You must now confess,
The man was Robert Dietz, not Harry Hess." 5"You bottom quark," said the Geologist,
"Where do you teach? You ought to be dismissed
As an imposter! Bob Dietz was the one
Who published first, but Hess's work was done
Before, as Dietz acknowledged. An instructor
Should know his facts.""You dissipative structure,"
The Physicist then said, "I--""Dietz or Hess,
What difference does it make? Not much, I guess,"
Said the Philosopher. "Enough of this.""For Dietz and Hess, you clown, the difference is
Substantial!" the Geologist replied.
"Now, Physicist, I see you're satisfied
To speak on geomagnetism, so
To rob you of the pleasure I will go
Ahead myself. 'The Earth's magnetic field
Decays, the exponential rate would yield
Ten thousand years as Earth's age at the max.'
So say creationists. 6 What are the facts?
Can this be true? No, from magnetic strips
Left in the seafloor (measured well on trips
With towed magnetometers), 7 we have found
The Earth's field will completely switch around,
The poles reversed--magnetic north turns to
Magnetic south and vice versa--through
Some process we can't yet explain. 8 These field
Or pole reversals, studies have revealed,
Are frequent, about half a million years
Apart. (We needn't worry, it appears,
That one will happen soon.) And as for rates
Of change in strength, the field's strength fluctuates,
There's no one-way decay. Creationism
Should go away, not geomagnetism!
Now, Physicist, what would you add to that?""I hope," said the Astronomer, "that at
This point, the Physicist will add his tale.
Let's have no more disorder or we'll fail
To finish, folks." The Physicist agreed,
And told the tale that you're about to read.
Honey color cheap hair extensions also known as real hair extensions, listening to this name is super sweet, very suitable for the season of love hair extensionsis a combination of brown.The Physicist's Tale
Thermodynamics deals with energy
And heat. It has four laws, but I will be
Discussing only one, the second law.
Creationists beat all I ever saw
For beating this to death. (I shouldn't say
"To death," they haven't killed a thing; what they
Beat up on is a man they've made of straw.)
What they insist is that the second law
Prohibits evolution. They don't say
Too much about the first law, though, and they
Have reason not to. It says energy
Can't be created, neither can it be
Destroyed--it's the conservation of
Energy principle. Now as they love
To say that evolution contradicts
The second law, creationists should nix
Creation too--it breaks the first law. They
Resort to miracle, of course: they say
That God created energy, and then
The law against creating it kicked in. 9
But let's not dwell on that; their man of straw,
The so-called breaking of the second law
On which they harp, brings us to entropy.The second law says that the energy
In a closed system will degrade, be less
And less of use for work; its randomness,
Disorder--what we call its entropy--
Increases. Things become disorderly,
To put it simply. Order may increase
(The entropy, in other words, decrease)
In open systems--systems with input
Of energy from outside sources--but
The universe's total entropy
Must nonetheless increase. Now we can see
The Earth as such a system, with the sun
The outside source of energy, the one
Life counts upon, life seen to represent
Increasing order (the development
From simple into complex forms). But this
Decrease in entropy in life forms is
More than offset by the vast quantity
Of energy that everyday we see
The sun give off, most of it wasted, lost
To space: increased disorder is the cost,
Considering the cosmos as a whole.
And say what you may please about a soul,
Our bodies age, our parts wear out, we face
Material extinction, can't erase
The fact that entropy, as Preston Cloud
Said, "gets us in the end." 10 That's why this crowd
From Dallas, Texas, links perhaps its worst
Belief with entropy: the Lord God curst
All flesh, the very elements within
It, with decay and death, all for the sin
Of those two Eden apple eaters. 11 Myth
As physics, that's what we are dealing with
When these folks come to town. And they insist
That evolution therefore can't exist,
Not on the cosmic level and not on
The biological.First, things have gone
To order from disorder, that's the flaw
In the big bang, they claim: the second law
Becomes reversed by evolutionists. 12
But actually it's the creationists
Who have things turned around. The universe
In terms of order can be seen in worse
Shape now than when it started: hot and dense
To start with, it was smoother, and has since
Grown lumpy, cooler, scattered; 13 it may be
Headed in fact for heat death, energy
Used up, all stars burnt out, a maximum
Entropic state, 14 unless a greater sum
Of mass is found so that eventually
Expansion will be stopped by gravity.
Now secondly, on life, when will they cease
To say that evolution's an increase
In order--that is, in complexity
Of life forms--that this law of entropy
(They claim) says can't occur? 15 Development
In life forms they agree can represent
A temporary order increase--thus
Seeds turn to trees, and embryos to us--
But there must be a "program" or a "code"
(Which we have in genetics), and a mode,
They argue, for converting energy
To growth (plant photosynthesis they see
As this converter); these things would require
A "programmer," they say, none could transpire
By any random means like evolution. 16
Well, folks, we have here quite a revolution:
What they've done is rewrite the second law!
For no requirements such as we just saw
Exist. 17 New forms of order can arise
Spontaneously--they won a Nobel Prize
In chemistry for Ilye Prigogine.
He calls them dissipative structures, 18 seen
In chemical conditions that are far
From equilibrium--meaning they are
Exposed to energy, for all that is
Required is energy input for this
Phenomenon to happen. There of course
Is still a lot to learn about the source
Of order in biology, but, well,
There's self-assembly in the living cell,
As can be seen in cell division; 19 we
Are dissipative structures, 20 helped to be
By solar radiation--such emissions
Cause far-from-equilibrium conditions
Upon the Earth--and needing food or light,
For any chance of living long is slight
Without a steady flow of energy
For maintenance. And although entropy
Has killed most species, there's no reason why
We dissipative structures shouldn't try
To keep from dissipating. It's no flaw
To try, that doesn't break a single law.Now ICR creationists are all
Quite single-minded, they are what we call
Young-Earthers. Far-from-equilibrium
Conditions thus have been here only some
Ten thousand years or so, for that's how brief
A time it's been (in ICR belief)
Since God created this whole universe. 21
It's nothing short of folly, though, to nurse
Such an illusion when the evidence
So clearly says the Earth has been here since
Some four and one-half billion years ago.
They pitch that young-Earth stuff but every throw
Is pseudoscience. Let's consider what
They say on radiometric dating. "Not
Reliable," they say, "the dates obtained
Therefore prove nothing." 22 People who are trained
In nuclear physics might well take offense.
But let's look briefly at the evidence--
What's radiometric dating anyway?
Some nuclei spontaneously decay,
Emitting particles (that's radiation),
The atom undergoing alteration,
Its first form called the "parent" atom, and
The second called the "daughter." (Understand
That two such forms of the same element
Are known as isotopes.) Now this event
Is random insofar as we can't say
Which isotopic atom will decay.
Decay occurs, though, at a constant rate,
One for each kind of isotope. That's great
For dating, for each one will have its own
Half-life, the time that half of what are known
As parent atoms take for their decay
To daughter atoms. Take a rock today
Containing an unstable element
(Spontaneous decay is what is meant
By instability), measure the ratio
Of parent and daughter atoms (we know
The isotopic half-life), and so gauge
How old it is, its radiometric age. 23Now granted, there is some uncertainty
In radiometric dating, just as we
Will find in any field. We cannot say
Precisely what the half-life is, we may
Be off a little on a constant; we
Are accurate, though, to a high degree,
We're there within just one or two percent. 24
It's safe to say it is no accident
When different methods used to date one rock
Produce the same result; it's not a shock,
It means we've got it right. 25 Though we allow
For some degree of dating error, how
Could error be so great that what appears
To be an age of four-plus billion years
Is really only thousands? 26 Physicists
Are humans, we're just like creationists,
We make mistakes; but can't they give us some
Credit for competence? No one's as dumb
As they would have you think we physicists
Must be--or any other scientists
Who don't see things their way.You'll hear 'em say
Decay rates might not be the same today
As in the past. 27 Well, my reply would be
The same as the Geologist's, 28 for he
Spoke well--I must admit it--with respect
To uniformity. We can't suspect
That laws can change and still get science done. 29
Take Joshua, his stopping of the sun: 30
Now you could credit God with intervention,
But then, folks, any theory I might mention
Can just go out the window. If the laws
Of nature are allowed to change because
It's handy, science can't proceed. It's nice
How Einstein put it: "God does not play dice." 31
No, God is like an old pro on the mound,
A photon hurler, God has been around,
And we are like a rookie at the plate
Who knows that God at least will play it straight.
We take our stance and know as we observe
God never throws a screwball or a curve,
The laws of nature always stay the same.
But only God knows every pitch's aim;
So we must try to see right where it's at,
Or we will never hit it with the bat.