This Book in PDF - Gary North

Introduction 11world of historical optimism. They also tend to prefer cosmicpessimism to cosmic optimism, for cosmic pessimism fits so muchbetter into a worldview based on historical pessimism.Negative FeedbackScientists also speak of the process of negative feedback. "Whatgoes up must come down," we are told from youth. Nothing multipliesforever. Things grow for a while, and then they stop growing.There are limits to growth in a finite world.Christians acknowledge that negative feedback is a limiting factorin a cursed world. The animals are not allowed to multiply andovercome the land (Ex. 23:29). They are restrained by man or by"the forces ofnature," meaning the environment's built-in limitationson the compound growth process. A multiplying species runs out offood or living space; some other rival species competes for the limitednumber of resources; still another species begins to prey on theexpanding one, either externally ("beasts of prey") or internally(parasites). Similar restraints limit the development of human institutionsin ethically rebellious civilizations. 22 Fallen man is neverwholly free from sin. His institutions and his environment will neverbe wholly devoid of the process of negative feedback, in time and onearth. 23But is this system of cosmic negative feedback inescapable? Arethere no exceptions? What about the miracles in the Bible? Aren't theseclassic examples of the non-universal nature of the entropy process(assuming what needs first to be proven, namely, that entropy is thephysical basis of negative feedback)? This question should remain inthe back of the reader's mind throughout this book. The question ofhow miracles fit into a world supposedly governed by unbreakablenatural law should be the central question in all modern science. Ifnatural law is breakable, then we must ask: How? Under what circumstances?Why? More to the point, what is the nature of"naturallaw"? Is it an autonomous, impersonal force that operates whether ornot God intends otherwise?22. Garrett Hardin, "The Cybernetics of Competition: A Biologist's View ofSociety," in Helmut Schoeck and James W. Wiggins (eds.), Central Planning and Neomercantilism(Princeton, New Jersey: Van Nostrand, 1964). Hardin, a dedicated evolutionist,does not discuss the possibility of the process of negative feedback beinglimited by the ethical character of a culture. .23. Garrett Hardin, Nature and Man's Fate (New York: Rinehart & Co., 1959), pp.48-55.