Are creationists arrogant? A review of King Crocoduck's series: Part 2

In the second video of King Crocoduck's (who I refer to as, KC for the sake of economy) video series, he deals with the Second Law of Thermodynamics. It's a difficult video to critique because KC makes very few arguments. Instead, he spends most of the 13 minutes of the video making assertions like (paraphrasing), “Creationists are stupid, they don't understand anything, they hate science, etc.” He does show a couple of very short clips of creationists mentioning the law but he doesn't really expound on how he thinks anything they're saying is wrong. He merely plays a clip and then insults the creationists as being stupid.

Let me start by making an admission. I'm sure that most creationists can't name all the laws of thermodynamics. I'll also admit that most creationists' understanding of the second law is grossly simple. Let's face it, most people aren't physicists. By the way, that also includes most people who believe the secular theories of our origins – those who are usually called, evolutionists in this debate. Neither do they fully understand the second law nor can they name all the laws of thermodynamics. It's a fact that most creationists went to public schools and learned science while sitting right next to evolutionists. I would say the average lay-creationist understands science about as well as the lay-evolutionist. The simple summaries of the first and second laws that KC cites in his video (i.e. "matter can neither be created nor destroyed"), weren't invented by creationists but are the explanations we were taught in science class.

Of course, being untrained or unlearned doesn't automatically mean “wrong.” No one is an expert in everything. Lay people can have opinions – even correct opinions – in areas where they have little training. It's not enough for KC to say that creationists hate science and don't fully understand the second law of thermodynamics. He needs to demonstrate precisely how natural processes can allow something like abiogenesis in spite of the second law.

KC spends some time explaining the second law of thermodynamics. He begins by talking about the flow of heat. Heat is a form of energy that can be directed to do work. KC offers the example of a piston. Of course, no system is perfectly efficient so as energy is used to perform work, some of it is expended and becomes “useless.” Over time, all the available energy will be spent and work can no longer be performed. This is why perpetual motion is impossible; new energy must be continuously added to any system or it will eventually fail.

The second law is sometimes called, the law of increasing entropy. KC objects to calling entropy, disorder because he thinks that term is too vague (just like he thought the term, nothing was vague). He explains his objection beginning about 5:55 into the video by describing what should be the presumed fate of the universe. Eventually, all usable energy will have been spent and all the atoms in the universe will be motionless, suspended uniformly throughout. KC's point is that such an organized arrangement of matter could hardly be described as, chaotic, so chaos and disorder are misleading terms to use when describing the second law.

Let me pause for a moment and remind everyone what KC said in his first video. He asserted that, in accordance with the first law of thermodynamics, energy was eternal. There, he chided Tom the Creationist saying, “I've already explained how something can come from nothing [no he didn't by the way] and, until you explain exactly why the second law of thermodynamics prohibits the universe from having always existed, you have no case.” Um, KC? Did something come from nothing or has everything always existed because you seem to be saying both here? Anyway, in this video, KC says, “Because of the second law of thermodynamics, the universe will eventually use up all of its available energy and will lose the capacity to perform work.” So, in KC's own words, if all the energy in the universe were eternally old, it should have reached total entropy already.

Now, getting back to what we were saying about disorder: KC claims the term, disorder is, “no less arbitrary that 'ooga booga'” (see slide at 4:29). It's ironic then, that Ludwig Boltzmann, the man KC practically venerates later in the video as the patron saint of entropy, is sometimes described as, “The Master of Disorder.” Per Wikipedia, “The idea that the second law of thermodynamics or "entropy law" is a law of disorder... is due to Boltzmann's view of the second law.” So the use of the word, disorder to describe the second law was not coined to, “allow creationists to commit as many fallacies of equivocation and goal post shifting as desired” as KC alleges.

The Master of Disorder article cited above offers these definitions: “Order means that there are very few configurations, if changed, which would go unnoticed. Disorder means that there are many configurations, if changed, which would go unnoticed.” Boltzmann noted that, since there are far more combinations of disordered arrangements possible than ordered arrangements, any system will either be in disorder or moving toward disorder. He called organization, “infinitely improbable.”

Boltzmann likened gas molecules to billiard balls moving around on a table.  At any given moment, they are far less likely to be ordered (as in a rack) than disordered (spread randomly around the table).  When we see things in the universe like design, purpose, order, fine-tuning, or pick your adjective, creationists acknowledge that as evidence for a Designer.  Per the second law, we see an ordered, organized universe being the result of random, un-directed energy is, "infinitely improbable."

KC also spends a good amount of time explaining how the earth is receiving more heat (energy) from the sun than it emits. In his typical, over-dramatic voice, he exclaims, “[Creationists] can whine. You can kick and scream. But the inescapable fact of the matter is that we receive more useful energy than we expend.” It's curious because KC includes a clip where creationists are admitting the earth receives energy from the sun – they're not whining, kicking, or screaming but never mind that. What KC fails to explain is how having available energy – by itself – can create order.

Let me give you an example: a living system is all about organization. You can have molecules, amino acids, and even proteins, but you won't have a living cell unless these things are organized a certain way. If you apply heat to amino acids, will they become more or less organized? In order to convert energy to work, you need something like an engine. Plants, for example, are like machines that can convert sunlight to food. The problem for evolution is that the sun shining on lifeless chemicals won't produce plants. In fact, the second law seems to argue against it. Heat applied to chemicals will tend to make them less organized! So KC really does nothing in this video to rebut the creationists' position or even explain how having energy from the sun helps his position.

KC spends the last few minutes praising the work of Boltzmann. He makes him out to be some sort of martyr. I don't know what Boltzmann's views on God were. It's my understanding, though, that he was likely bi-polar and was driven to suicide in large part because of criticism from his peers. Even so, I'm not sure what any of this has to do with creationism.

Over all 5 of his videos, KC continuously commits the fallacy of conflating evolution with science as though they're the same thing. I don't know of any creationist who has a problem with science. There are – and have been – many scientists who believe God created the universe. People like Newton, Pasteur, and Mendel, and Kepler immediately come to mind. Even today, Drs. Ben Carson and Raymond Damadian are admitted, young-earth creationists. Now, I'm not saying that these people's belief in a Creator made them better scientists. I'm saying that they have all made great contributions to science – they're belief in creation not withstanding.

The images of toothless men in overalls and the endless barrage of juvenile insults made by KC are arguments I would expect to see on the playground of an elementary school. They do nothing to support his premise that creationists are arrogant. Conversely, KC's prolific use of scientific jargon is nothing more than smoke and mirrors used to dress up his empty arguments. KC's entire series can be summed up with this analogy: Imagine an 8-year-old bully in the 3^rd grade telling a 2^nd grader, “I'm a scientist. You're a poopy head.”

Read the entire series:

Introduction

Part 1

Part 3