Re: concerning good and evil (a particular example)
- From: "shevek" <shevek4@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 25 Aug 2005 08:30:53 -0700
francisco wrote:
> suppose that God is a divine ice cube. if i drop the divine ice cube in a
> cup of hot water, the hot water cools down, but the divine ice cube does not
> melt (it does not change at all). a negative entropy change is a change in
> the state of a system towards organization and order (a change towards
> life), and a positive entropy change is a change in the state of a system
> towards disorganization, disorder, and randomness (towards death). the
> change of the hot water is a negative entropy change, but there is no
> entropy change in the state of the divine ice cube. if sw = the negative
> entropy change of the hot water and c = the constant (yet dynamic) state of
> the divine ice cube, then sw + c < 0. in other words, the total entropy
> change of the process during the passage of time is negative. this means
> that the direction of time of the things of this world under the influence
> of God is towards life. this direction of time towards life is good.
>
You say the hot water cools down, but the ice cube does not change at
all. This doesn't make sense, energy is not conserved. Maybe this is
your point.
However, you could conceive of a divine ice cube that stays crystaline
at any temperature. It could absorb the heat and stay as ice, perhaps
via some divine force between the molecules.
Or, you could conceive of a divine ice cube that did not absorb any
heat, i.e. some kind of thermodynamic barrier exists around the cube so
that it cannot be heated or cooled by it's surroundings. The water
would stay hot around it.
Which of these three hypothetical cubes did you have in mind? And what
about these monstrosities do you consider to be "towards life" or
"good"? All we know that is good in this world has none of those
properties!
> if, on the other hand, i drop an ordinary ice cube in a cup of hot water,
> the hot water cools down and the ice cube melts simultaneously until the
> temperature of the water and the temperature of melted ice cube are the
> same. the final product of this process is a body of lukewarm water. the
> change of the hot water in this process is a negative entropy change, and
> the change of the ice cube is a positive entropy change. if sw = the
> negative entropy change of the hot water and si = the positive entropy
> change of the ice cube, then, according to the second law of thermodynamics,
> sw + si > 0. in other words, the total entropy change of the process during
> the passage of time is positive. this means that the direction of time of
> the things in this world under the influence of the second law of
> thermodynamics is towards death (the opposite direction of the time of the
> things in this world under the influence of God). this direction of time
> towards death is evil.
It seems you have unhealthy and confused fear of death. The direction
of time "towards death" is good. It is also known as life. I would
say the march of increasing entropy is equally well described as
"towards life" or "towards death". It is only with increasing entropy
that life is created.
Your argument that Gods violate the 2nd law of thermodynamics is one
that I would expect to hear from an atheist.
Thanks for your thoughts - shevek
.
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