From: jmm25@po.CWRU.Edu (Jessica M. Mcgeary)
Newsgroups: alt.atheism
Subject: Physics and Morality
Date: 11 Sep 1992 01:02:54 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA)
NNTP-Posting-Host: slc12.ins.cwru.edu


	This is my senior year term paper for Literature and Philosophy.
I had a really lovely argument with a judge friend of mine about setting
up scales of morality outside of religion.  Unfortunately, we were
interrupted; it was, after all, a youth group meeting, and the person in
charge wanted to get back on track.  Sigh.  Anyway, I thought that this
looked like a good place for people to give me their opinions on the whole
idea, as I was sick the day they were to discuss my paper in class and I only
got the teacher's opinions on the whole idea.  It's a bit long.

The Outside Force: A Philosophical Treatise

	To the best of our knowledge, goodness and evil have been concepts
known to man since the beginning of the human race.  For nearly as long,
humans have been debating about these selfsame concepts.  The teaching of
what is good and what is not is traditionally put in the hands of religion
and those who teach it.  Often, however, these religions conflict with one
another; one's idea of good is another's idea of evil, and yet another
feels the whole thing to be morally neutral.  It is sometimes said that no
absolute standard can be reached, and that one's morality and, therefore,
concept of goodness, must be mainly subjective.  Yet many would agree that
there are some things most people feel to be objectively wrong.  How, then,
are we to decide what is good and what is evil? By what standard can goodness
be judged? Is there any such standard?
	To seek this standard, we shall begin with the Odd Couple Postulate,
which states: "To assume makes an ass of you and me."1  This is a form of
Ockham's razor, a philosophic rule which states that one should not multiply
entities beyond necessity.  Very well, then, if we begin by saying we do not
presume the existence of a God or other entity- indeed, if we do not presume
the existence of any being, including ourselves- we begin with only the
Universe itself.  What can be said about the Universe that will always remain
constant? What always holds true? The physical laws, discovered and tested by
scientists, that I will hereafter call the Great Laws.  That without outside
interference, a body at rest will stay at rest, and one in motion will stay in
motion.  That in a closed system, heat energy flows spontaneously from a hot
object to a cold object, but never in the opposite direction.  That neither
matter nor energy can be created nor destroyed, but only changed, one to the
other.
	These laws, though they seem obscure, do apply to our lives.  The
first Great Law simply states what we all know: things and people prefer to
remain as they are.  Ever try to wake someone up in the morning? Then you
know what it means.  We fear change, many of us.  We prefer to accept what
we have, to hold onto that much, most of the time.  As one philosopher said,

	God bless the goods we was given,
	God bless the U.S.  of A.,
	And God bless our standard of livin',
	Let's keep it that way.2

Inertia is a force that cannot be denied in human society.
	The next Great Law has been stated in several forms.  Most likely,
the most commonly known form is this: Entropy increases.  Entropy is the
scientific name for disorder.  It has several other definitions as well, one
of which is "the degradation of the matter and energy in the Universe to an
ultimate state of inert uniformity", according to Webster's.  What it means,
basically, is that things break down.  Left alone long enough, anything in
this universe wears out.  The closely ordered arrangement of silicon atoms
in a quartz crystal will eventually lose its ability to hold as its energy
slips away, and what it means in your life is that your watch will stop.
The repeated motion of a piston up and down inside a cylinder creates friction
between the piston and the oil surrounding it.  The friction takes the form
of heat, which affects the oil on the molecular scale, causing them to bounce
around in a disorderly fashion and run into each other at high speeds.  As
they do so, they break apart, and can no longer protect the cylinder from the
piston's action.  The heat and friction eventually break the cylinder down,
and your car has 'thrown a rod'- all because entropy increases.
	The most important part of these two Great Laws, however, is the
part I have not yet talked about.  That part is this:
	"Without outside interference", or, "In a closed system".
	Simply put, yes, physical laws are true and inexorable.  Yes, they
have been tested for thousands of years, and yes, to the best of our
knowledge, they always hold true.  But the fact is that the human being
can provide the outside interference, can stick his or her nose into a closed
system and louse the whole thing up.  And this is where morality begins.
	Left alone, things continue as they are- is that not so? And if they
continue as they are, the energy dribbles out of them, and they eventually
break or die.  Human beings are notorious for not leaving things alone.
Witness the refrigerator.  Every refrigerator ever made stands purring
quietly to itself in open defiance of the Second Great Law, the Second Law
of Thermodynamics- "From hot to cold it flows, dammit!"3 It's the application
of energy to a closed system that makes refrigeration possible.  Human beings
can not only create an island of cold in the middle of heat, but can defy the
more common formulation of the Second Law, as well.  Iron ore is infinitely
less ordered in its configuration than steel; its molecules are jumbled
together, along with molecules of other substances.  And steel itself can be
made more ordered yet, by shaping it and molding it into whatever form a
human being chooses to make it.  From the Brooklyn, Triborough and Hell's
Gate Bridges in New York City to the tiles on the bathroom floor, the work
of human beings has provided the outside impetus to bring order from disorder,
and to maintain that order against the chaos that threatens it.
	Human beings can also act in concert with the Second Great Law, and
accelerate the increase of entropy in the Universe.  A fire set by an
arsonist transforms the matter of the house in question into heat energy,
destroys the order its structure had held, and reduces the house to a state
of inert uniformity.  A murder ends the life of a human being, enabling the
victim's body to disintegrate and fall to dust- inert, uniform dust.  And
even when an action has no apparent effect on anything other than the one
performing the action- for instance, a sick person who opts not to take
medicine- entropy will, eventually, increase.  The actions of whatever
pathogen causes the illness speed up the destruction and eventual death of
the sick person.
	Suppose we take the hypothetical empty Universe- the one devoid of
entities- as an example.  Here, we must add an entity, for it is only the
action of an outside force- a consciousness- that can change the course of
a Great Law.  Let us say this entity consists of matter and energy both- that
it is alive, for surely a thing with no energy other than the potential
inherent in its chemical bonds is not alive.  What is that entity's most
innate drive? What is the drive found in all creatures, from the lowest
protozoan to the great sperm whale? Continued existence.  The definition of a
living creature is one that transforms energy for its own purposes- that can
be the outside force!- and that is capable of reproduction.  Reproduction is
a means of continuing existence, whether only through DNA (in the case of the
protozoan) or through raising progeny (whales, humans, elephants, apes, and so
forth).  Therefore, a living creature is an entity that seeks to perpetuate
its own existence, in its particular form and according to the order of its
kind.
	Is it not illogical for such an entity to act against its own
existence? Of course.  For there is no such thing as nonexistence, only
change.  Thus runs the Third Great Law.  Matter becomes energy; energy becomes
less useful, eventually becoming heat, the least useful and therefore most
entropic form of energy.  Heat is the motion of particles.  Without an
outside force, those particles will stay in motion forever.  Therefore, there
can be no such thing as nonexistence.  It is foolish and illogical to strive
for something that cannot be achieved; it is a waste of energy and a hastening
of one's own death, and the eventual disintegration of the Universe into
uselessness and void.
	Existence is a fact.  Even if we believe that we are the only ones
who exist, we must still acknowledge our own existence in doing so.  Each
person is made of matter and energy both- matter in the body, energy in the
nervous system and in the potential of the body's parts.  Like all other
living entities, it is only logical that we seek to continue our own
existence.  And to do so, we must change.  For without change, what does the
first Great Law say? Things remain the same.  And if things remain the same,
the Second Great Law comes into play, and entropy increases.  A human being
who acts in a way that increases entropy acts against either herself or the
Universe.  In the first case, she is directly attacking her own existence as
she knows it.  In the second, she is attacking the realm from which come the
things that enable her to continue her own existence as she knows it- her
food, oxygen, water, heat, and so forth.  In either case, she is acting
illogically, only hastening her own end.  The continued existence of one's
self, and therefore, the Universe, is the only logical course of action.
From this proceeds all good.
	For what causes pain and grief in society? Entropy.  Disorder.  The
action of one human being against another's existence, whether directly or
indirectly.  A murder or a transposed zero in a company's bank account both
hasten the increase of entropy.  The first is a direct attempt to transform
matter and energy into a less ordered and less useful state.  The second
causes disorder within the company, inability to pay people properly, and
eventual harm to unpaid workers.  Entropy again.  Attempts by dictatorial
regimes to maintain a status quo- attempts commonly regarded as evil- also
hasten the increase of entropy, for they prevent the intrusion of the outside
force that is the only savior from entropy.  Change is the only guard against
this.  Change is the only way they can continue to exist- and by denying
change, they deny their own chance of existence.  Only by changing, by
acknowledging and using outside forces, can anything continue to exist in its
own form.
	If we wield the blade of Ockham and reduce the number of entities in a
physical system to one, there are only a handful of known absolutes for that
one.  The Great Laws of inertia, entropy, and the conservation of matter and
energy are three of them.  The other is the biological imperative to continue
to exist, which is really a form of the Third Great Law.  In order to continue
that existence, the entity in question must not only act in a manner that does
not increase the system's entropy, but in a manner that creates increased
order with as little disorder as possible.  Continued existence in the most
ordered form possible, whether for bridges or beings or societies, is the
highest form of good.  Maintenance alone is not enough to stand against
entropy, for maintenance requires an input of energy.  Evil- that is to say,
entropy- requires something more to be overcome.  Good may only be achieved
through change, through evolution, through the continued development of
beings, society, and the Universe until the most ordered form possible is
reached- and even then, that form must change in order to continue.  And for
change to occur, one thing and one thing only is required.  By whatever name
it is called- whether it is an entity that watches over the Universe and
protects it, or merely a part of nature, the hand of humanity- that which is
required for good to exist is the Outside Force.

Finis



End Notes:


1The Odd Couple, TV show, episode unknown.

2Paul Simon, "Have A Good Time".

3Larry Gonick, author of The Cartoon History Of The Universe

Any comments?
-- 
Jessica McGeary
jmm25@po.cwru.edu
Case Western Reserve University
Remember! Arguments should be FUN!