It was never intended that we should prove scientifically the existence of our Savior and our Father in Heaven. Nevertheless, there are numerous observations that certainly proclaim a divine creator. Many have observed and marveled at the amazing ORDER and complexity of living things, especially man, and have taken this to be a strong indicator of a divine, all-powerful creator. The beginning and the sustaining of life certainly could not have been via spontaneous, self-initiated events.
A recent event in my own life has, without doubt, cemented my firm conviction of the divine origin of life and our existence on this beautiful earth. One night while sleeping, I was suddenly awakened by a single word “ENTROPY” coming to my mind. I had never before thought about entropy in the present context of creation, but had, in the distant past, as a research chemist, recognized the entropy effect on chemical reactions. Entropy is a principle/law of thermodynamics that, in simplified terms, means that any process taking place, without intervention, will naturally go to a DISORGANIZED state. There are complex mathematical expressions of this principle, but a couple of mundane examples illustrate: a man’s garage will most often be disorganized unless intervention takes place. And, of course, the same tendency is true for a teenager’s bedroom. Thus, without a creator, and if creation events had been left to proceed without divine influence, only disorganization would have resulted. Since our world and all of its living entities (mankind, animals, plant life, etc) are highly ORGANIZED, one can only conclude that all of these creations did not occur spontaneously, but must have resulted from God’s directive power. The church organization, gospel principles, etc., and etc. are all examples of highly ORGANIZED systems, and thus thermodynamically (entropy) favored.
For me personally, having received this gratuitous prompting has strengthened my testimony greatly. I have not searched the literature to see if others have had similar thoughts. Personally, I know that the Savior has placed the gospel on the earth and ORGANIZED the true church.
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Lynn H. Slaugh graduated from Brigham Young University with a B.S. in chemistry in 1952, going on to earn a Ph.D. in chemistry from the University of Washington, in Seattle, in 1956. From 1956 to 1998, he conducted exploratory research with Shell Co. He is the inventor of two commercial industrial processes (and contributed to others), the author of 162 U.S. patents as well as several hundred foreign patents, the author of twenty-nine publications in various scientific journals, and the recipient of the American Chemical Society Award in Industrial Chemistry for 1995.
Posted September 2010
