I Fought the Law of Thermodynamics and the Law of Thermodynamics Won

[create_destiny]

I've been reading a tome on the natural history of California. I just finished reading a portion about the laws of thermodynamics. It's the second law of thermodynamics that's blowing me away.

Energy can be converted from one form to another, but transformations are never completely efficient.

Disorder (entropy) tends to occur during energy transformations; therefore to create order or put things in a precise arrangement, requires more energy than can be reclaimed later.

I'm thinking this law must also apply to spiritual matters. Like God can pour his grace into us all the live-long day, but we can only convert 1% of this grace into anything fruitful.

Perhaps this explains why, after years of spiritual struggle, all that came from me was a pea-sized grape that quickly withered and fell to the ground where ants fed upon it until they were drunk with joy. A handful of drunk ants. This is my spiritual contribution to the universe. Christ was crucified for a handful of drunk ants.

Fuck. Hopefully I can use the law of thermodynamics as a justifiable excuse on Judgment Day.

I'm at least going to use it as an excuse to not clean the house today.

Forgive me.

Comments

[whosplittheatom.livejournal.com]

haha, what's up with both of us obsessing about thermodynamics lately?! craziness!

You would really like this book I've been reading, on chaos theory. Chaos, mathematically, is basically another name for the behavior of what they call "nonlinear dynamic systems", for example, things like the weather, the motion of water, population growth patterns of various species, fluctuations of the stock market, the thermal convection inside an oven or in a pot of water on the stove, etc. Basically, there is a sort of reverse principle to entropy in which systems that are far from thermodynamic equilibrium (ie. systems with low entropy) basically order themselves around these mathematical patterns called attractors. The whirlpools of water that you see in a running stream, for example, are attractors. Our solar system is such a nonlinear (ie. chaotic) system, and interestingly, the earth is in this really ideal yet very narrow range for biological life to exist and flourish, and so much of the action and motion we see here, both in the natural world and in human society, exists at this very fascinating place at the very edge of chaos. It's ordered enough to where we can find patterns everywhere, but close enough to chaos that there's no way we can predict much of anything in the long term simply because there are far too many variables involved, and chaotic systems are both feedback-dependent and extremely sensitive to initial conditions (for example, imagine what a different timeline your life would have evolved along had I not randomly decided to pick up a newspaper to look in the classifieds that one day in summer 1993, and happened to see the ad for the parking garage!)

Anyway, ramble ramble...

I haven't figured out which natural Law would be best to use as a justifiable excuse on Judgement day, haha. If nothing else, I'll just say "I plead the Zodiac!!" ;)

[posteverything.livejournal.com]

Ha, well played.

[nameleswanderer.livejournal.com]

So that explains why my mind is so messy.

There are drunk cockroaches too

[sardonic-artery.livejournal.com]

I don't think God has mismanaged poorly here. I just think more happens than we get to see.

[andeepants.livejournal.com]

I relate more to Newton's Third Law: "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction."

If I approach a female at a certain velocity, she repels at that same velocity. To safe face, I hack it up to the laws of physics; though it probably has more to do with nature's cruel play: natural selection.

[gracegiver]

OH CRAP!!

I have another friend on my list who goes by creactivity, and I got your names mixed up. what's so amazing is you guys think so much alike, I really thought this was her!!! I came inches from responding as if this were her post, but then realized I didn't know one person on your list of commentors.

1% of His grace is a lot, yanno.

[andeepants.livejournal.com]

I dunno, all an all, laws of thermodynamics are hard to compare to vague concepts like "god's grace." I find god to be an ad-hoc hypothesis; where different concepts are brought about to explain away the holes in other concepts. But you know that I am a staunch atheist and find nothing consoling or great about the postulation of god to begin with, so I am never on the hunt to find a way that he may exist and not be accountable for the disorderly nature of the world.

House cleaning

[raingirl26.livejournal.com]

I'm spiritual, but not religious, which brings me to focus more on excuses to not clean the house. I tend to not need excuses - I just don't clean. When I moved in with my now husband I stated out loud that I didn't vacuum. That pretty much still holds today, 21 years later. It feels like dirty houses get in the way of me doing my real life's work, but when they get clean, I still lack focus to get my stuff done. Where do I find the energy to go in the right direction?

[lcurtis.livejournal.com]

The laws of thermodynamics are beyond my understanding I have just sorta figured out Newtons universe. Actually there is some rather heavy stuff running through this post and the responses thereto. To some of you seekers I might recommend a relatively new book by a Ursala Goodenough, "The Sacred Depth of Nature". Some answers there and of course more questions.