The Limitations of Natural Causes

Materialist contention that life is the result of Natural Causes is based on the premise that Natural Causes account for everything that exists.  The assertion being made here is that his is not true; Natural Causes are capable of creating only a small fraction of the possible states of matter/energy that are theoretically possible based on the laws of physics.  There are three reason provided here that rebuke this assertion:  life is a process that requires logical functionality to work, which Natural Causes are incapable of, The Second Law of Thermodynamics, and logical analysis.

Life is a Process That Requires Logical Functionality

The fact that life is a process is not disputed.  The common definition of a process is “a series of actions taken to actions taken to achieve an end.”  Based on this definition, life is a process at all levels.  All life, taken together is a process because life depends upon life – there is a food chain with recycling.  Each organism has hundreds of processes that control the temperature, digestion, respiration, etc..  The same can be said about each cell with processes like repairing or replacing proteins, cell division, etc..

There are two types of processes, natural processes and intelligent processes.  Natural processes are those that occur as a result of free energy resulting from naturally caused events and result in atoms, molecules, planets, suns, and galaxies.  On earth, they account for weather, erosion, rivers, terrain features, caves, etc..  The “end” achieved is without any intelligent influence save the possibility of an intelligent cause of the laws of physics.

The other type of process is an intelligent process that involves logical actions defined here as Intelligent Work.  Such a process requires the functionality of sensing conditions, called state variables by engineers, the ability to process the information, i.e., to determine action to take based on the state variables, and actuators, the means to apply the needed energy, in the form, time profile t place and orientation specified.  Specified power must be provided for the sensing means, logic functionality, signaling means, and the actuator. This means that free energy, unless it is captured and converted to specified energy by machines, e.g., windmills, solar cells, will not suffice.

Processes require logical functionality because the work they must perform is contingent upon conditions. 

Where Did The Information Come From?

Steve Meyer documents the requirement for massive amounts of information to suddenly appear to account for the Cambrian Explosion in his book Darwin’s Doubt. Materialist have come to acknowledge this fact despite the insanely low improbability, but insist that it must have happened because life does exist, and to think otherwise is unscientific. 

Free Energy

In physics and chemistry, free energy refers to amount of internal energy available in a system available to do work.  Normally this is a temperature gradient in the system. The higher temperature matter, has heat energy available or “free” to do work,   But the energy source could be something different such as a impinging photon or some other particle. Whatever the form, free energy is energy resulting from natural causes that is available at some point in a system to do work. This energy is unable to perform specified work because it is the result of natural events and will not be guaranteed to be the right form, right amount and profile, right time, direction, etc.  

Another reality is that free energy disperses from its source.  This is caused by the bulk properties (e.g. thermal conductivity) that result from the naturally caused equilibrium states (e.g., atoms and molecules). This means that if there is a requirement to provide a given amount of energy at some given point, the energy source would have to located at the exact point needed, and have to be the right amount, at the right time to achieve the required end, otherwise it would impact the adjoining matter.  Natural causes have no method of delivering specified energy.  This is especially true in a cell because the cell is an enclosed space.  The other problem in a cell is that there are thousands of different types of molecules (specified complexity), many with weak bonds, a necessary condition for functional proteins. Heat, the most common source of free energy will impact all of the cell bonds causing many unwanted reactions for each desired action.  The only source of energy that would impact a singular point within a cell¹ would be a impinging particle, which, to do the required Intelligent Work, would have to impart the right amount of energy, at the right time, at the right place having evaded all of the intervening matter to get  there.

These problems are overcome in cells by the Intelligent Work performed by the molecular machines in the cell, delivering ATP molecule(s) to the place needed and “firing” it (or them) at the needed point in time.  An analogy in the macro world that we can relate to would be a hand drill that powered instead of batteries, fire crackers.