Page 92 - Coincidences in the Bible and in Biblical Hebrew

CHAPTER 3 “RANDOMNESS” AND “COLD”
CHAPTER 3 “RANDOMNESS” AND “COLD” 71 71

the physical world—like thermodynamics, cosmology and biology. It
is associated with the Second Law of Thermodynamics (SLT), and in
fact forms the foundation for this law. A typical feature of Boltzmann’ s
entropy is its dealing with energy and matter in all its forms, where
thermal energy (heat) provides some of the most common and widely
observed realizations of the SLT.

• For Boltzmann’ s entropy, it has been demonstrated that objects with
lower temperatures (cooler objects) generate larger entropy on absorbing
heat than hotter objects.
• The second concept of entropy was developed by Shannon from
mathematical theory in relation to the information contents of
communication. Shannon’s entropy is purely statistical in nature, and it
provides a measure of the amount of randomness that is “contained” in

a specified statistical distribution.

• For Shannon’ s entropy, it has been demonstrated that increasing
randomness—that is, increasing the uniformity in the distribution of
probabilities—results in higher entropy. More randomness implies
increased entropy.
• A heated debate conducted among scientists whether the two concepts
of entropy are equivalent has led to the conclusion that the two concepts
are indeed one and the same.

If the two concepts of entropy (Shannon’ s and Boltzmann’ s), are equivalent,
then “randomness” and “coldness” should be considered equivalent in some sense,
with respect to their relationship to entropy and its generation.

3.3 “Randomness” in Biblical Hebrew and in the Bible

The Bible relates to any indication that randomness rules our universe as an
abomination. God is the ruler of the world, not randomness. True, the actions,
or the results of the actions, of the Divine are sometimes hidden. God occasion-
ally hides, or conceals, his face, and sometimes also hides the hiding. But the
truth is that the world is conducted by the Divine, and if this is ignored, then the
wrath of the Divine will befall the blind, who believe in the god of randomness.
Furthermore, the wrath itself will appear in the form of sheer randomness (or
coincidences).
Consider a few examples for this general approach: