Was the second law of thermodynamics introduced only after the fall?
A viewer named Deborah asks Robert to comment on the idea that the second law of thermodynamics was not introduced until after the fall.
Answer
Not necessarily so. The second law of thermodynamics, otherwise called entropy, is basically a law about heat transfer: the natural tendency is that an ordered system, left to itself, will increasingly become disordered, and everything seeks equilibrium, which is why nature abhors a vacuum. This is a natural event that occurs whenever you have a created physical thing, so it did not just come after the fall; it was already part of the laws of creation when God made the universe. When God creates objects supernaturally and calls them into being, it is necessary that he also created the natural laws that allow them to sustain themselves, right down to the atomic and molecular level, including the laws of thermodynamics. Now, if that is the case, you can have other laws that counterbalance the deterioration, and that is what I would say applies to Adam and Eve: when God said 'in the day you eat of it you shall die,' there was a physiological change so that their bodies would start deteriorating without the counterbalance that God had provided, which he then took away. So the second law was not created after the fall; it may have been left on its own, without a counterbalancing force, after the fall. It is as applicable before the fall as after.