Tuesday, November 17, 2009

In which a pretty cool domain is not what it seems to be.

Newton's The third law of thermodynamics is the one that states it is impossible to reduce the temperature of an object to absolute zero. This is a pretty cool fact, but not one that would strike the lay person as yet another example of the beautiful complexity of the universe. It doesn't leave the same impression as, say, a picture of a distant galaxy from the Hubble or a SEM image of an ant. (I grant that you physicists and chemists might really get turned on by the third law, but give me a fractal reconstruction of a fern instead, please. Or the Central Limit Theorem.)

So head over to my buddy Google's place and type "third law of thermodynamics" into the search engine. The third site to pop up has the likely name "www.allaboutscience.org." The explanation of the third law given by allaboutscience.org sounds reasonable enough -- I am not a physicist -- until we reach the very last paragraph:
Why is the Third Law of Thermodynamics true? Why are there no exceptions in the entire universe? This law cannot be an accident, since none of the thermodynamic laws are random. Organization implies an Organizer. Design implies a Designer. If the laws are not random, then who created them?
No shit? The existence of physical laws is evidence for an intelligent designer? Does this mean that the only evidence against an intelligent designer would be uniform entropy throughout the universe? Well, Q.E.D., gosh darn it! We're done!

Not surprisingly, www.allaboutscience.org leads to another site, www.allaboutcreation.org, which in turn leads to www.allaboutreligion.org and www.allaboutgod.org. I didn't examine the reams of drivel published on these sites too closely, but for heaven's sake, don't look at allaboutscience.org's description of the scientific method. It's enough to make the Baby Jesus cry.

7 comments:

CNH said...

Not Newton's Third Law!

Anonymous said...

Right, not Newton.

Also, it's pretty easy to fall through the rabbit hole when googling science subjects. I ran into this when I googled 'GPS relativity.' Neil Ashby is the guru of relativtic effects on GPS, so I found his stuff. BUT, I also found some relativity denialists. I think their problem is that the value of the speed of light, and assuming it's the same throughout the universe, implies a much older universe than creatonists want to believe.

Miss Kitty said...

Ugh. [deep sigh]

My education majors will no doubt cite that page in their essays on why intelligent design should be the only thing taught in public-school science classes.

Llama said...

You want more junk science? My mentor sent me to this site:

http://www.dnaperfection.com/

Apparently they can awaken all twelve of your DNA strands (yes. twelve. geez.)

Even better? They can do it without even being near you! Just send them money! How simple!

Angry Professor said...

@CNH and Anon, yes, not Newton. Fixed!

Edwin said...

re: DNA Perfection

The stupid, it BURNS. Oh. My. God.

And I _know_ people who would go for this.

Doctor Pion said...

What's really funny about that site is that their statement of the Second Law accurately describes the fact that it only applies to a closed system, which leads logically to the result that evolution is perfectly consistent with the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Ooops.

But not really an major ooops because Intelligent Design folks don't deny that evolution takes place. They simply say that God created the Law of Natural Selection. They're just careful to say it quietly so the Young Earth types don't run them out of town.