Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Supernatural faith and scientific faith

b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Biblical Hebrew Forum

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Rolf Furuli <furuli AT online.no>
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Supernatural faith and scientific faith
  • Date: Mon, 20 Jul 2009 15:23:23 +0200

Dear James,

According to the second law of thermodynamics, the entropy (disorder) will always increase. But this is a general law, and there is one big problem in applying this law to the origin of life, namely, that it is only valid definitively or conclusively inside a closed system; in a part of an open system the entropy can decrease, provided that it increases somewhere else. So, I think that the only way to make an in depth study of the origin of life is the cumbersome way that I followed.

But we cannot continue along this road-we must concentrate on Hebrew matters. I mentioned the scientific details in order to show scientific methods by which we illuminate one important question mentioned in the Tanakh-the origin of life. And I also wrote my post in order to show how much faith and conjecture are found inside scientific disciplines-but students and others often are not aware of it.

Best regards,

Rolf Furuli
University of Oslo



Hi,

In order to explore the two possibilities I calculated and studied

-the total mass of bio-atoms (atoms used in living matter) on the earth.
-the possible sources of energy on the early earth.
-the energy wavelengths that could be accepted by each bio-atom and
those which would be
rejected.
-the equilibrium constants in water of each bio-atom, in order to
know when each atom would
precipitate.
-the chemical and physical laws that would be at work in the
synthesis of atoms into molecules and in
the destruction of the same.
-possible mechanisms that could shield synthesized molecules from
destructive energy.
-the different forces that would be at work in the synthesis of
nucleo-acids versus proteins.
-how much information that could generate by chance.
-how much information was necessary for the smallest possible living entity.

There were also many questions connected with the points above that I
studied. And my conclusion after reading about one thousand
scientific articles and 300 books and doing my own calculations, was
that origin of life by chance (evolution) was impossible to the
highest degree, if the laws of nature as we know them were at work on
the early earth. When one theory (chance origin) is falsified, the
other had to be the correct one, even though it could not be directly
verified by scientific means. On the basis of my study I could not
identify the originator of life on earth as YHWH, the God of the
Tanakh, but only as one or more living entities.


You could have saved yourself a lot of time and a lot of reasoning by just applying the second law of chemical thermodynamics to the problem and calculated the implied change in Gibb's free energy.

dG = dH + dS

The change in Gibb's free energy can be approximated by the change in energy of the system plus the change in entropy (measure of disorder of the chemical system).

To go from atoms/simple molecules to the kind of macromolecules in a single cell implies a massively exothermic reaction. i.e. dH (enthalpy is massively +ve)

To go from a highly disordered system (atoms/simple molecules) to a highly ordered system (living cell) implies a massively +ve change in entropy.

A reaction can only be feasible if the implied change in Gibb's free energy is -ve. Subsitituting into our equations we get.

dG = dH + dS
= +ve + +ve
= +ve
= infeasible reaction

The implied reaction of atoms and simple molecules colliding together and creating a fully functional living cell is thermodynamically impossible.

supernatural faith versus scientific faith. Regarding long life-spans
under discussion, I do not see that they can be excluded on the basis
of biology and our knowledge of the human body, because the process
of aging is not understood.

Actually, we already understand quite a bit. We know that as cells reproduce the ends of the DNA shorten. Conclusions have been drawn that this in some way makes the copying process imperfect and results in symptoms of ageing.

James Christian


Best regards,

Rolf Furuli
University of Oslo

Dear James,

While I personally think that Jim's theory is dead wrong, there is a huge
difference between the long life-spans of biblical characters (and those in
other works of literature as well) and the examples that you listed bellow.
Humans living hundreds of years is not only not a part of our present-day
experience. It is also totally impossible within our understanding of the
laws of nature as they stand at present. Theorizing that "nature was
different in the distant past" or the "God intervened in the cases of
certain chosen people" is a statement of faith, by its nature unprovable by
any scientific method known to us. As long as you admit that your position
depends on an acceptance of the biblical text as factually accurate out of
faith, that's fine. Comparing anyone who does not accept your faith with
children is derogatory, and has no place on this list.

Yigal Levin

Co-moderator, B-Hebrew


_______________________________________________
b-hebrew mailing list
b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-hebrew




--
The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in
Scotland, with registration number SC005336.





Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page