26 April 2010

The second law of thermodynamics is against the Bible


Several years ago, the members of the Christian Coalition of America, headed by a certain Ralph Reed, stated:
"We don't like the implications of [the second law of Theormodynamics], and we will not rest until it has been reversed in the courts."

"What do these scientists want us teaching our children? That the universe will continue to expand until it reaches eventual heat death? That's hardly an optimistic view of a world the Lord created for mankind. The American people are sending a strong message here: We don't like the implications of this law, and we will not rest until it has been reversed in the courts."
"Why can't disorder decrease over time instead of everything decaying? Is that too much to ask? This is our children's future we're talking about."

"My daughter's schoolbooks tell her that we live in a world ruled by disorder. That's a direct contradiction of what it says in the Bible, about how everything is going to get better, and we'll all live happily up in heaven after the End Times."

"This is America, and in this country, we have the God-given right to change laws we don't think are Christian. We are united in our demands that the second law of thermodynamics be repealed, and our voice will be heard no matter what. That's just a plain fact, and nothing anybody says can ever change it."
This is the kind of idiocy requires no further comments.
[Credit to a Nadder! ]

4 comments:

  1. Visualise a world...

    ...where schientific laws are not trusted while "hypothetic" laws based on mood or desire are taken as a fact...

    You are now seeing the human world...

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  2. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  3. Such a world has existed many times in the past, notably the middle-european medieaval age. And, yes, I agree, it is completely scary to have people who do not understand(1) scientific laws(2) and use hypothetical nonsense in lieu.

    -----
    (1) The word "trust" is not correct. To understand is the verb that pertains to science. While, we can, temporarily, trust something, we understand it once we have collected evidence, perform experiments, or proved it.

    (2) The word "law" can also be misunderstood. Laymen understand "law" as something given, completely arbitrarily. This is entirely false.
    -----


    So, I agree that a world based on hypothetical laws would be a nightmare.

    Unfortunately, this is the world that many religious freaks envision. These freaks reside in many places, from middle-America to middle East and come in many varieties: christians, muslims, hindus, and so on.

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  4. Alas, it’s not only the religious freaks that believe in a hypothetic laws' universe...

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T H E B O T T O M L I N E

What measure theory is about

It's about counting, but when things get too large.
Put otherwise, it's about addition of positive numbers, but when these numbers are far too many.

The principle of dynamic programming

max_{x,y} [f(x) + g(x,y)] = max_x [f(x) + max_y g(x,y)]

The bottom line

Nuestras horas son minutos cuando esperamos saber y siglos cuando sabemos lo que se puede aprender.
(Our hours are minutes when we wait to learn and centuries when we know what is to be learnt.) --António Machado

Αγεωμέτρητος μηδείς εισίτω.
(Those who do not know geometry may not enter.) --Plato

Sapere Aude! Habe Muth, dich deines eigenen Verstandes zu bedienen!
(Dare to know! Have courage to use your own reason!) --Kant