metonymy4u

Living cells require huge amounts of energy to support their continued integrity. The physical principle involved here is called entropy, which is an expression of the idea that the universe is tending towards randomness. To reverse this trend requires work (energy). For example, living cells must often maintain a gradient of ions across their membranes in order to perform their functions: neurons are dependent on an influx of sodium ions to trigger an electrochemical signal down their axonal processes, muscle cells are analogously dependent on calcium ion fluxes to initiate contractions. Mitochondria are the suppliers of this energy and are themselves dependent on a steady influx of oxygen, brought to them by the actions of our nerves and our muscles, which they burn to release and store energy for those muscle and nerve cells in the form of ATP. So the natural question is: how did the whole system get going? How did living creatures, the “anti-entropy machines” get going in a universe ruled by entropy? One traditional answer has been that the universe must contain some sort of anti-entropy force or substance. This is what we traditionally think of as “God.” Another approach is to simply accept that we live in a universe of both entropy and anti-entropy and leave it at that. When we start out assuming that something cannot come from its opposite, why are we surprised that we then have to start inventing all kinds of divisive categories like “God” and “Evil” to make sense of the world?