The Biblical model of origins states unequivocally that God created the universe. Modern Science has, however, presented a model of origins which does not require an intervention of a Higher Being in the formation of the universe. Briefly put, the naturalistic theory states that: In the beginning there was the ‘cosmic egg’ (a very dense compressed object into which was compressed all the matter of the universe and according to various speculations could have been smaller than a pinhead or some claim that it could have been a few kilometers in diameter). This primordial egg exploded some 15 thousand million years ago and produced some atoms of hydrogen and helium, which together with photons came shooting out of the explosion with great speed. As it cooled, it clumped together to form stars, and nuclear reac- tions within the stars produced the heavier elements such as oxygen and iron. When these stars in turn exploded, they scattered these elements. Enriched by these elements, the gas clouds eventually spawned other objects including our sun and planets, which contain all the elements necessary for life to evolve. The evolutionary pro- cess then continued until by chance molecules arose which gave rise to life. Eventually, all the plants and animals, including man, came into existence through these naturalistic processes. This scenario also requires a substantive leap in faith, since the very essence of the theory violates the laws of thermodynamics.
The First Law of Thermodynamics tells us that matter can- not be created or destroyed. Since the world is here, this leaves
us with two choices, either somebody made it, or it made itself. Of course it does not answer the question: where did the initial material, or for that matter God, come from? The Second Law of Thermodynamics says: everything tends toward disorder. This phenomenon is known as entropy. The first law is one of conser- vation and implies that the substance of the universe (matter and energy) is a constant. No matter or energy is thus being added to the universe, or one could say that the ‘creation’ of all matter is thereof complete. The second law states that all processes in the universe will result in an increase in the entropy or movement toward a final equilibrium where all processes cease and this will lead to what has been described as heat-death of the universe. According to this law, order will tend to decrease rather than increase, but because there is so much order in the universe today this law of necessity must be violated by all theories that postulate the development of order out of chaos. This applies both to the physical and to the biologi- cal world, but in spite of these constraints, naturalistic theories of origins, with their implied long ages, are the accepted paradigms within which the educational systems of the world operate. Dr. Isaac Asimov stated in the Smithsonian Institute Journal, 1970:
The universe is constantly becoming more disorderly. Viewed that way, we can see the second law all about us. We have to work hard to straighten a room; but left to itself it becomes a mess again – very quickly and very easily; even if we never enter it – it becomes dusty and musty. How difficult to maintain houses and machinery and our own bodies in perfect working order… How easy to let them deteriorate – in fact, all we have to do is nothing – and everything deteriorates, collapses, breaks down, wears out – all by itself – and that is what the second law of Thermodynamics is all about.
In spite of the constraints imposed by the laws of ther- modynamics, theories of naturalistic origins still continued to flourish and received a boost when radiometric methods for age determination were discovered. It was argued that given enough time these problems could be circumvented since one could find pockets of ‘inventiveness’ (chance formation of order in an overall declining system) and radiometric theories seemed to provide the proof for such long ages.