![\"entropy2\"](\"http:\/\/www.joshuastairhime.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/entropy2.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nTonight I walked outside with a box of stuff that I needed to dispose of, and since we live in the country I put the box in our burning barrel and lit it on fire. \u00a0In those brief moments before the light from the fire began to overwhelm my night vision, I leaned\u00a0back and looked up at the stars. \u00a0On nights like tonight in the country, you can see stars everywhere. \u00a0They run up and down, back and forth across the inky expanse of\u00a0the night sky. \u00a0 The stars letting in light like fabric with far too many pinpricks in it to still be worn as clothing. \u00a0Some areas were brilliantly concentrated sections of light, and others sporadic and distanced.<\/p>\n
The flickering light of the fire began to distract me, and I looked over to see flaming drips of plastic falling further down into the barrel, almost like the shooting stars I sometimes see on nights like tonight. \u00a0First a small burst of light that goes out almost before you can recognize that it was really there, and then a lingering stare, as if by looking harder you can bring the starry streak back again. \u00a0I watched as these shooting stars of flame fell, igniting the trash below it. \u00a0I watched as the fire crawled up the side of the box, unmaking the things in its path, taking away their form and function.<\/p>\n
I have witnessed the effects of fire many times before tonight, but this time the\u00a0simple little exothermic reaction I had created sent a shiver through my soul. \u00a0You see, every fire has a few common characteristics: fuel, an oxidizer, heat. \u00a0One other thing that fire always seems to carry with it is entropy. \u00a0Very loosely stated, entropy is the measurement of disorder in a system.<\/p>\n
If you’ve made it through a high school level science class, you’ve probably heard at some point or another that energy can not be created or destroyed, that energy can only be changed in form. Of course if that was the whole story, then fire would just be a restructuring of energy. \u00a0Stored energy would become released energy in the form of heat, that would interact with the larger system around it and the effects would ripple down the line forever.<\/p>\n
Except that isn’t the whole story.<\/p>\n
Entropy can also be defined as energy that is no longer available to the system. \u00a0Energy that is no longer usable as energy. \u00a0Energy that has seemingly been destroyed.<\/p>\n
You know what is even more terrifying?<\/p>\n
Increased entropy is the natural result of unguided actions. \u00a0All we have to do for entropy to increase, is to let the world do its own thing. \u00a0Entropy naturally increases as the world moves from a state of order, to disorder. \u00a0Every second, more and more energy is lost to our system (i.e. the universe) and removed from the equation around us. \u00a0Every second. \u00a0My little fire wasn’t just unmaking the stuff in the fire, in effect I was participating in unmaking a part of the universe. \u00a0Forever.<\/p>\n
So I got pretty freaked out when I started thinking about it. \u00a0I’ve actively unmade part of the universe, and I can’t remake it. \u00a0I can’t fix it. \u00a0I’ve pushed the universe one step closer to it’s inevitable end! \u00a0 That’s what happens you see…eventually the universe runs out of energy. \u00a0Beautiful stars die after spending all their fuel, leaving behind frozen planets and broken orbits. \u00a0One by one the stars becomes more distant, more separated, more isolated, until nothing visible remains, just darkness, the absence of light.<\/p>\n
A total buzzkill on a beautiful starry night, right?<\/p>\n
There are very few Bible verses that I personally find really comforting, I just don’t really get into “life verses” or motivational applications of popular verses. \u00a0I believe in the meaning of the whole bible, but I just don’t find comfort in most verses without the context of the rest of the bible surrounding it. \u00a0There is of course an exception. \u00a0If I had to summarize the whole Bible in one small phrase, I would choose this phrase from Revelation 21:5. \u00a0“Behold, I am making all things new.” \u00a0If you gave me one more\u00a0phrase I would continue with Revelation 21:6 “I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the End. \u00a0To the thirsty I will give from the spring\u00a0of the water of life without payment.”.<\/p>\n
In a universe that is quite literally tearing itself apart, in one phrase I can know that all things will be made new. \u00a0In that phrase, the Alpha (the beginning) and the Omega (the end) have told me all that I need to know. \u00a0In that one sentence, you can find God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the ultimate being that is outside of time, promising to make all things new. \u00a0Granted this small sentence is somewhat sparse on the details of how and why and when he will make all things new, but for me, this one promise is enough. \u00a0God is going to make everything new. \u00a0I don’t know how, but I know that he will. \u00a0Jesus didn’t just defeat sin and death on the cross, he also\u00a0defeated the inevitable, he defeated entropy.<\/p>\n
In a universe that is inevitably hurtling towards eternal darkness, only the beginning and the end can say “Let there be light”.<\/p>\n
For a great science fiction short story I stumbled across the other day by Isaac Asimov (that admittedly inspired this post) check out “The Last Question”<\/a>.<\/p>\nDid you enjoy what you just read? Consider sharing it with your friends!<\/h3>