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	<title>Comments on: Spirtual Entropy</title>
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		<title>By: activephilosophy</title>
		<link>http://thebridgecincy.wordpress.com/2007/09/25/spirtual-entropy/#comment-873</link>
		<dc:creator>activephilosophy</dc:creator>
		<pubDate>Wed, 15 Apr 2009 23:35:51 +0000</pubDate>
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		<description>This is a nice post. 

Although I am not personally Christian (or religious) I think that some of the elements of the new testament are tenable to creating a better human condition.  

However, as a physicist, I want to give you a heads up on using this type of &#039;psuedo-scientific&#039; argument to draw parallels between the laws of physics and spirituality.   This is not because I personally care how you do this, but I often find that many heated debated between religious and non-religious people stem from a lack of understanding (on both sides) of the laws of physics, specifically the 2nd law of thermodynamics. 

The 2nd law states, that entropy for any closed system must either stay the same or increase (the universe just happens to be a close system, so that is why we say entropy always increases, but using the word always is very misleading).  Entropy always increasing does not mean that any single component of a system must always have its (own) entropy increased, it only states that when all of the changes in entropy for a system are added up the NET effect is for the entropy to go up.

Example:
Imagine the universe was entirely composed of an ice cube an hot block of iron.  If you melt an ice cube by touching it to the hot peice of iron, the water will melt (increasing its entropy), but the iron will cool down (decreasing its entropy).  The 2nd law simply states that the increase of entropy in the water must be greater than the decrease in entropy of the iron block (so that the NET effect is to increase the entropy of the universe). 

So in your analogy, you slightly misuse the statement (as it pertains to the 2nd law), 

&quot;That means if I employ my will in my marriage…I can expect disorder&quot;

Strictly speaking the 2nd law has nothing to say about disorder as it pertains to you marriage, because you marriage IS NOT a closed system. 

In a spiritual or metaphysical analogy, I guess this works just fine, but I want to warn against using this argument against other atheists/scientists/non-believers.   

I have recently discovered the power of tolerance, and used to be a staunch atheist.  Six months ago I would probably gone through this post line by line and picked it apart using logic and correct scientific definitions. I am not sure how much time you spend debating people on the internet, but this type of logic is exactly what atheist like to argue about.  So I thought I would give you a couple of tips on how to hone your understanding of the 2nd law (and physics in general, isn&#039;t physics awesome)

Now I realize there is no point in fighting, when we could be working together.  

Have a nice day!</description>
		<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>This is a nice post. </p>
<p>Although I am not personally Christian (or religious) I think that some of the elements of the new testament are tenable to creating a better human condition.  </p>
<p>However, as a physicist, I want to give you a heads up on using this type of &#8216;psuedo-scientific&#8217; argument to draw parallels between the laws of physics and spirituality.   This is not because I personally care how you do this, but I often find that many heated debated between religious and non-religious people stem from a lack of understanding (on both sides) of the laws of physics, specifically the 2nd law of thermodynamics. </p>
<p>The 2nd law states, that entropy for any closed system must either stay the same or increase (the universe just happens to be a close system, so that is why we say entropy always increases, but using the word always is very misleading).  Entropy always increasing does not mean that any single component of a system must always have its (own) entropy increased, it only states that when all of the changes in entropy for a system are added up the NET effect is for the entropy to go up.</p>
<p>Example:<br />
Imagine the universe was entirely composed of an ice cube an hot block of iron.  If you melt an ice cube by touching it to the hot peice of iron, the water will melt (increasing its entropy), but the iron will cool down (decreasing its entropy).  The 2nd law simply states that the increase of entropy in the water must be greater than the decrease in entropy of the iron block (so that the NET effect is to increase the entropy of the universe). </p>
<p>So in your analogy, you slightly misuse the statement (as it pertains to the 2nd law), </p>
<p>&#8220;That means if I employ my will in my marriage…I can expect disorder&#8221;</p>
<p>Strictly speaking the 2nd law has nothing to say about disorder as it pertains to you marriage, because you marriage IS NOT a closed system. </p>
<p>In a spiritual or metaphysical analogy, I guess this works just fine, but I want to warn against using this argument against other atheists/scientists/non-believers.   </p>
<p>I have recently discovered the power of tolerance, and used to be a staunch atheist.  Six months ago I would probably gone through this post line by line and picked it apart using logic and correct scientific definitions. I am not sure how much time you spend debating people on the internet, but this type of logic is exactly what atheist like to argue about.  So I thought I would give you a couple of tips on how to hone your understanding of the 2nd law (and physics in general, isn&#8217;t physics awesome)</p>
<p>Now I realize there is no point in fighting, when we could be working together.  </p>
<p>Have a nice day!</p>
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