Below is the online edition of In the Beginning: Compelling Evidence for Creation and the Flood,
by Dr. Walt Brown. Copyright © Center for Scientific Creation. All rights reserved.
Click here to order the hardbound 8th edition (2008) and other materials.
The universe is an isolated system, so according to the second law of thermodynamics, the energy in the universe available for useful work has always been decreasing. Therefore, the universe is not infinitely old—it had a beginning. Also, as one goes back in time, the energy available for work would eventually exceed the total energy in the universe, which, according to the first law of thermodynamics, remains constant. This is an impossible condition, showing in another way that the universe had a beginning.a