INTRODUCTION

Our previous paper: "Is Biochemical Evolution Possible?" defined the term
"statistical impossibility". We also discussed its meaning, and showed
that life's advent by natural means IS a statistical impossibility. We now
redirect our attention away from the advent of life, and toward a
discussion of its progression in the fossil record.
 

FOSSIL COMPLEXITY

The fossil record unveils a systematic increase of complexity with the
sequential advent of each new life kind. Information theory allows us to
quantify and therefore measure the increase in complexity of these life
kinds in the fossil record. Since our universe appears to have originated
from a singularity (Big Bang), it constitutes a thermodynamically closed
system. The fact that space-time, although dynamic, is finite introduces
a thermodynamic constraint that will be seen to disallow natural
processes as a ROOT cause of the observed, consistent rise in the
complexity of fossils.

This does NOT mean that evolutionary mechanisms cannot play a role in the
way that complexity increases with time. Instead, what it does mean is
that if evolutionary mechanisms DO play a role, then the ultimate origin
of these mechanisms cannot reside in the properties of physical matter.
 

TRADITIONAL SECOND LAW

In times past, creationists misused the traditional 2nd Law of
Thermodynamics, claiming that it DISallowed the increase in complexity
seen in the fossil record. However this is not so, and for several
reasons. For one thing they confused complexity with order-- the two have
nothing to do with one another (evolutionists did likewise). Crystals are
ordered. Life is complex.

The 2nd Law was misused because it was misunderstood. The traditional
(old) 2nd Law is confined to thermodynamic variables (e.g., temperature
and pressure). Moreover, it is valid only in equilibrium i.e., "at rest"
situations. The traditional 2nd Law is therefore valid only "before" and
"after" an event, but cannot be applied to the event itself. Accordingly
it does not and cannot speak to the dynamic progression of fossils into
the higher life forms found all over the earth in its crust.

For example, take a "before" photo of a pond at rest. Next throw a stone
into the pond, and wait until all of the ripples have disappeared. With
the pond again at rest, take a second "after" photo. Both photos look
identical, but something is different. A stone now lies at the bottom of
the pond. If the stone were a huge rock and the camera good enough, we
might see the slight rise in the water due to its displacement by the
rock lying on the bottom of the pond.

The traditional 2nd Law quantifies the difference between the "before"
and "after" states of the pond by assigning a number called "entropy" to
describe the rest state of the pond "before" and "after" we throw the
rock.

The traditional 2nd Law teaches that if we maintain the pond closed to
all other influences, then this number called "entropy" will always be
higher when describing the 'after' rest state, than its value when
describing the 'before' rest state.
 

HISTORICAL ERRORS

Creationists: (1) mistakenly identified this "entropy" number with
"disorder"; (2) wrongly identified complexity with "order," and (3)
erroneously concluded that the traditional 2nd Law disallowed the
increase in complexity seen in the fossil record.

In effect, creationists viewed the rise in fossil complexity as a rise in
order. Since they believed instead that the 2nd Law mandated a rise in
DISorder, they rejected natural processes and, therefore, evolution as
the engine behind the rise in complexity. Their reasoning was wrong. But
the conclusion they sought to prove turned out to be true.
 

FIRST LAW OF THERMOPHYSICS

Natural processes do NOT explain the systematic increase in fossil
complexity. However, this conclusion is not from the traditional 2nd Law,
but instead is the result of a new, and vastly more powerful law whose
origins lie in Quantum Statistical Mechanics. This new law is now
commonly known as the First Law of Thermophysics.

Unlike the traditional 2nd Law, the First Law of Thermophysics is valid
at each instant of time i.e., before, DURING, and after we throw the
rock. Moreover, it is not confined to thermodynamic variables, but is
valid for ANY observable. It's only requirement (as with the traditional
2nd Law), is that the system be "thermodynamically closed." Note that
this is NOT "cosmological closure." The latter is concerned with whether
our universe will expand forever or reverse itself and then contract. The
answer to this question lies in how much "dark matter" is hiding within
our universe. The jury is, at the present time, still out. No one knows.
 

THERMODYNAMIC CLOSURE

Thermodynamic closure is an entirely different issue. When applied to our
universe, this condition is concerned with whether or not energy sources
exist outside our universe that can influence its inner workings. Since
Big Bang implies that all of physical reality resides in an expanding
space-time fabric that originated from a singularity, the outer boundary
of our universe is enclosed by an expanding, four-dimensional manifold
that provides thermodynamic closure.

Ironically, many if not most creationists reject Big Bang. Yet Big Bang
guarantees the thermodynamic closure needed to apply the First Law of
Thermophysics. The First Law (also once called the The New Generalized
Second Law of Thermodynamics) disallows a regular (on average) increase
of complexity in a thermodynamically closed system. It is the foundation
of modern thermophysics, is valid in nonequilibrium situations, and is
true for any observable (not only thermodynamic variables).
 

DNA'S VAST INFORMATIONAL CONTENT

Applied to DNA, the First Law teaches that the advent of DNA could not
have occurred in the way prescribed by materialists. If it did, nature
would have had to manufacture information that it simply doesn't have. In
effect, were DNA to form in the way proposed by materialists, we would
have a perpetual motion machine. Stated differently, chemical
recombination cannot increase complexity-- it can only REDUCE it.

Consider when snow flakes form. The complexity, and therefore the
information of the overall system decreases. The reason is that each
snowflake is essentially described by the same information that describes
all the others. Most important, it is LESS than that needed to describe
each of the water molecules in their prior liquid state.

The problem in attempting to use chemical action to explain DNA is that
its formation corresponds to the production of information whose
magnitude vastly exceeds that which is available from natural processes
within the entire physical universe.
 

QUANTUM FLUCTUATIONS

Some materialists have appealed to quantum chemistry because it embraces
"fluctuations." Prigogine's work is sometimes erroneously cited to
support the idea of DNA formation "from less complicated molecules"
through natural processes. The claim here is that a fluctuation can
be amplified and stabilized (ratcheted into a stable structure of
enhanced complexity) by the flow of matter and (heat) energy from the
surroundings. However these arguments ignore the two fatal points that
mitigate against this claim:

a) The information resident within an observer's overall description
of the fluctuating system and surroundings must be conserved or decrease -
it cannot increase. The reason is that the measuring apparatus must
ALWAYS yield less than complete information;

b) The evolution of (any) physical system(s) energized by natural
processes is a stochastic process ONLY in the sense that the final
state will depend on the probability of creating the needed fluctuation,
but not in any way that implies a systematic production of information.
 

DISTINGUISHING ORDER FROM COMPLEXITY

Complex systems have inner parts arranged in ways that are described by
long specifications. But ordered systems are easy to describe. For
example, if "Heads" came up each time you flipped a coin a thousand
times, we could describe all the ways that the coin had arranged itself
throughout all of the flips by the one symbol "H". This is called an
"ordered" sequence.

But suppose instead that the outcomes are "Heads, Tails, Heads, Heads,
Tails," and that this sequence repeats throughout the one-thousand flips.
In this case we can describe all ways that the coin arranged itself by
the five symbols "H T H H T". This is called an "aperiodic" sequence.

Finally, lets flip our coin one thousand times, and assume that no
discernible pattern occurs over the thousand outcomes. This is called a
"random" sequence, and its complete specification requires a description
whose length is one thousand symbols. The arrangement of symbols is said
to be "complex."
 

BUILDING PROTEIN

When we consider just one small building block that is found in living
organisms, such as Cytochrome-c, we are looking at a sequence-- not of
either heads or tails, but instead of four different kinds of chemical
units called nucleotide bases. Each cluster of any three of these four
units acts as an instruction to "enzymes." These enzymes (2000 in each of
50 billion body cells) can be thought of as workers that attach chemical
components (amino acids) end-to-end-- much like building a train by
attaching different cars together on a railroad track. The particular
component (amino acid) selected depends on which 3 of the 4 possible
units exists at the construction site.

Cytochrome-c is simple protein, and it consists of a "train" of 101 amino
acids. But the functionality of this protein critically depends on which
of the twenty possible components (amino acids) reside at each of the 101
available locations. The number of ways open for these 20 different amino
acids to biologically position themselves within these 101 "mailboxes" is
staggering. Although oversimplified here for ease of discussion, this is
in effect the problem solved by Yockey (J. Theor. Biol. 67:377).
 

COMBINATORIAL FUNCTIONALITY

As a practical matter, only ONE combination out of the many billions that
are possible works-- and it works because the microscopic structures
within each of the amino acid components are strategically separated from
each other in locations that allow their unique chemical properties to
express the functionality of Cytochrome-c. Stated differently, it works
because it's the ONLY combination that provides the desired functionality.

These strategic separations denote a level of complexity vastly beyond
what is possible from billions of particles rearranging themselves over
tens of billions of light-years space across billions of years of time.
To believe otherwise is to accept the idea that the miraculous
separations requisite to the functionality of one of life's numerous
building blocks spontaneously coalesced by chance. Although this idea
supports a morally unbridled life style, it is void of rational warrant.

The reason this is so does not stem from religion. It comes from modern
thermophysics: Thermodynamically closed systems with a complexity under
300 bits do not produce systems whose complexity is 1500 bits
(Cytochrome-c). Moreover, and in the light of published scientific
literature, to believe otherwise is irrational. Let us also remember that
these are not conclusions regarding an organism, or even a cell. They
address a relatively simple building block of life.
 

NATURE MIXES

What DOES the First Law of Thermophysics teach regarding natural
processes? Although volumes have been written on the First Law, its
central conclusion can be summarized in two words: "On average, Things
mix." Let's look at an example. If a sugar cube is placed in a cup of
coffee, it spreads throughout the cup. The same is true of a block of salt
placed in a bucket of water. The salt eventually disperses itself
throughout the water. This in fact is how our oceans became saline. We
are seeing nature at work. Things mix.

Or consider a log burning in a fireplace. Here hydrocarbon (wood) is
mixing with oxygen to produce a flame and heat. Have you ever seen rust?
It's iron that mixed with oxygen (ferric oxide). One last example: Divide
your kitchen sink with a barrier and put hot water on one side, and cold
water on the other. Removing the barrier allows the hot and cold water to
mix, giving luke warm water. What would you need to restore hot and cold
water in the opposite sides of your sink? One answer is a furnace and a
freezer designed by an intelligence.
 

INTELLIGENCE SEPARATES

My foundational point is this: Whereas nature mixes, intelligence
separates. If you were afloat on an ocean without drinking water, you
would die of thirst before the salt in a glass of sea water separated of
its own accord to return a block of salt and pure drinking water. Have
you ever seen the ash in a fireplace unmix to return a log and oxygen?
Not only haven't you seen it-- you will NEVER see it.

Those who believe that microscopic bits of matter spontaneously separated
into a miraculous arrangement to produce a living organism do not
comprehend the insanity of this scenario. They would be better served
believing in the tooth fairy. The lunacy of such beliefs are explored
further in Part 6: How Thermophysics Impacts Fossils.