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Creation 39(1):23, January 2017

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Self contradictory atheism

Why antitheists are forced to believe in antiscience

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antiscienceImage: wavebreakmediamicro / 123RF Stock Photo

Good science shows that in this world, perpetual motion machines and ‘free energy’ machines are absolutely impossible. The first and second laws of thermodynamics dictate with absolute certainty that these machines are impossible,1 and any claims of making or discovering such a machine are either mistaken or fraudulent. But upon reflection, this knowledge leads, if you are willing, to belief in our glorious Creator, God.

Perpetual motion machines and ‘free energy’ machines are imaginary machines that can either run forever without additional fuel, or they can produce more work, energy and/or fuel than they use.1

Now, the whole universe can be thought of as a kind of machine. It has moving parts, it contains fuel, it uses energy in stars and in the sun and in other ways, and it does a kind of work.2 But, for people who don’t believe that a creator God exists, the universe is in fact—as will be shown—a ‘free energy’ perpetual motion machine. Why?

For atheists, the universe (defined as all the matter and energy that exists, which also covers any hypothesized ‘multiverse’3), either:

Came into being without any work or fuel or energy provided from any other source. I.e. it made all the work and fuel and energy there is. Or:

Is eternal. In which case it is by definition capable of running forever without any energy being added from the ‘outside’.

Most today would opt for option 1, as they are aware that the universe is heading towards the ‘heat death’ demanded by the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which inescapably means it had a beginning.2

But this obviously also demands that the energy arose ‘for free’, in contradiction to the First Law of Thermodynamics. So, either way, for atheists, the universe must be a ‘free energy’ perpetual motion machine, by unavoidable definition.

Thus the atheist hypothesis of a ‘Universe from Nothing’4 is revealed to be no better than the futile imaginings of some misguided tinkerer, trying to harness ‘free energy’ or build a perpetual motion machine in his garage.

Make no mistake; it is bad science to believe in perpetual motion machines and ‘free energy’ machines. One atheist ‘copout’ is to postulate that the laws of science are themselves not fixed, evolved somehow, or are different in other parts of the alleged ‘multiverse’ mentioned earlier. It should be obvious that by abandoning the foundational axioms of observational science itself to support a preferred philosophy, proponents of such a rejoinder are abandoning the rationale for calling their view ‘scientific’ in the first place. If, however, you believe that God created the universe, you don’t have to irrationally believe in a universe that must be a perpetual motion machine. You can adhere to the very highest standards of observational and experimental science.

The sometime atheist response, that this requires believing in a God who is the ultimate perpetual machine, is an obvious mistake (apart from the slight of describing God as a machine). Machines consist of matter and energy, part of the material world which God (who is spirit, and whose “kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36) created. Science only dictates that perpetual motion machines are impossible in this material world, which is subject to the laws that God Himself put in place.

So the choice comes down to either having to believe in an entity that science says is impossible—the nonsensical, self-contradictory, unscientific atheistic notion of a universe that must be a ‘free energy’ perpetual motion machine, or believe in the eternal God who gave rise to the universe—all matter and energy—and instituted the laws by which it operates.

Hence reason, logic and science lead to belief in our wonderful, mighty, glorious Creator, God!

Posted on homepage: 14 May 2018

References and notes

  1. Wieland, C., World Winding Down: Understanding the ‘Law of Disorder’—and how it demands a Creator, Creation Book Publishers, Powder Springs USA, 2012. Return to text.
  2.  The universe’s total energy is constant (1st Law), but its available energy relentlessly decreases (2nd Law). So if it had existed forever, we would already have run out of available energy, so no more work would be possible. Return to text.
  3.  The (totally untestable) idea that ours is only one universe among many other (unobservable) ones, each possibly having different laws. See creation.com/multiverse-theoryReturn to text.
  4. Krauss, L. A Universe From Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing, Free Press, USA, 2012. See critique, creation.com/krauss-review and creation.com/krauss. Return to text.

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World Winding Down
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