I gave this book five stars. It provides an easy read to understand the basics of The Second Law, and does not require a lot of mathematics. It provides many pictures and graphs to help the reader. But when I read that Atkins wrote that “Paley’s argument is false”, one star came off. Then Atkin gave the analogy of a rabbit colony, writing that “Rabbits have emerged as a pathway by which the Universe degenerates and the quality of energy degrades. Rabbits, like primroses, pigs, and people are a part of the great network, the cosmic interconnection that allows temporary structure to emerge as degeneration ineluctably lowers the Universe toward is final equilibrium.”
First, the Universe in not a “temporary” structure. And there was no great network before the Big Bang when such a structure would emerge from chaos. No chaos existed. Nor is the Universe at an equilibrium point. Atkins writing on Payle’s watch says, “Paley’s famous watch summarizes the argument for an active designer: If I found a watch, he argued, the intricacy of the mechanism would leave me in no doubt that It had been designed, that there had once, at least, been a designer. He went on to argue that the natural world has an even greater intricacy of the construction, and that a traveler coming across the world would be left in no doubt that it too had been designed, and that there had once, at least, been a Designer.” (pg. 189)
But there is more to Paley’s argument. Paley’s watch may be represented by an 1860 Hamilton pocket watch, a marvel of compressed engineering. Some of those watches were fitted with crystal backs, such that the marvelous mechanism was visible. Of course, the universe is not a Hamilton watch. But what the watch and the universe have in common, is complexity and high order. In fact, the universe exhibits far greater complexity and order than does a Hamilton watch. It is this complexity and order that we can legitimately compare. Now in Paley’s watch, we may make the analogy (following the comparison of complexity and order) that the main spring might symbolize the Second Law. Then the First Law of Thermodynamic might symbolize one of the pivots. The classical laws of physics, say, the law of motion in response to a force will be represented. The laws of Special Relativity would be represented by some of the parts. The four forces would be represented. Time and space would be represented. Then, all the material that makes up this world, including the microparticles like protons and electrons would be represented. All the wave particles such as photons, neutrinos, and others would be found there. The point is, a Hamilton pocket watch operates by precise coordination of its operating parts, just as does the Universe, but with far more precision that does a Hamilton watch. All of the Laws of Physics function perfectively smoothly with the same objective purpose. In the case of the Hamilton watch its to tell time. In the case of the universe its to exist and function as it does. Note that William Paley never claimed that life or, for example the complex human eye, can be explained by presuming a designer. Life in the Darwinian scenario, was the result of a long process of natural selection, while things like protons, electrons, and the physical laws, all working together, need a designer explanation. Near the end of the book Atkins makes a telling statement, which brought back the fifth star: ‘The Second Law is a global denial of the emergence of spontaneous structure.” IE, The Second Law rules out “chance” as a cause of the birth of the universe.
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