The 9 1/2 Commissars sitting on the top
branch, er, row of seats of the SovNarKom of SR, seeing an interview and article
published by the Union, decided to check into this ourselves.
"What do
these scientists want us teaching our children? That the universe will continue
to expand until it reaches eventual heat death?" asked Christian Coalition president
Ralph Reed, speaking at a rally protesting a recent Kansas Board Of Education
decision upholding the law. "That's hardly an optimistic view of a world the Lord
created for mankind. The American people are sending a strong message here: We
don't like the implications of this law, and we will not rest until it has been
reversed in the courts."
The controversial law of nature, which asserts
that matter continually breaks down as disorder increases and heat is lost, has
long been decried by Christian fundamentalists as running counter to their religion's
doctrine of Divine grace and eternal salvation. "Furthermore," said spokeswoman
Sally Strutters," the idea that such chaotic breakdown contains within it the
seeds of a new order, runs contrary the religious doctrine that only God can create
order. As far as New Orders go, we can rest assured that Pat Robertson will eventually
become the President and give us one. Think of the children!"
"Why can't
disorder decrease over time instead of everything decaying?" asked Jim Muldoon
of Emporia, KS. "Is that too much to ask? This is our children's future we're
talking about."
"I wouldn't want my child growing up in a world headed for
Hellfire, which is what total heat death and dissolution into a vacuum, really
is about," said Kansas state senator Will Blanchard (R-Hutchinson). "No decent
parent would want that."
Calling the second law of thermodynamics "a deeply
disturbing scientific principle that threatens our children's understanding of
God's universe as a benevolent and loving place," Blanchard is spearheading a
nationwide grassroots campaign to have the law removed from high-school physics
textbooks. The plan has already met with significant support in the state legislatures
of Kansas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Tennessee, Georgia, and Mississippi.
"My
daughter's schoolbooks tell her that we live in a world ruled by disorder," said
Knox Heflin, one of several dozen fundamentalists who spoke out against the teaching
of the law at a Statesboro (GA) School Board hearing. "That's a direct contradiction
of what it says in the Bible, about how everything is going to get better, and
we'll all live happily up in heaven after the End Times. And everybody knows that
Heaven is a constant 70 degrees Fahrenheit."
"The only 'heat death' Jesus
ever mentioned is the one that sinners will suffer for all eternity in the Lake
of Fire," said Indianola (MS) School Board president Bernice McCallum. "Now more
than ever, we need to hear what the Bible has to say about our public schools'
physical-science curricula."
Leading physicists contend that, as the foundation
of much of our current scientific understanding, a reversal of the second law
of thermodynamics would have massive ramifications on the future of both our nation
and the universe itself.
"Were the second law to be repealed, random particles
would collect and organize themselves instead of dissipating, which could affect
such basic processes as combustion, digestion, evaporation, convection--that sort
of thing," Columbia University superstring theorist Dr. Brian Greene said. "There
wouldn't be much sunlight, either, because all stars, including our sun, would
be collecting photons from surrounding space instead of emitting solar radiation.
Oh, and the universe would begin to contract rather than expand, which could possibly
turn back the flow of time itself, sending our cosmos spiraling inward toward
a reverse Big Bang, a sort of 'Big Crunch,' if you will."
"In light of all
this," Greene continued, "I would sincerely hope that our nation's legislators
think long and hard before making any decisions to amend or repeal this law."
Despite
such warnings, the grassroots movement to eliminate the second law of thermodynamics
appears to be gathering strength.
"This is America," said Duane Collins,
a Gatlinburg, TN, distillery operator and father of five. "And in this country,
we have the God-given right to change laws we don't think are Christian. We are
united in our demands that the second law of thermodynamics be repealed, and our
voice will be heard no matter what. That's just a plain fact, and nothing anybody
says can ever change it."
