Entropy

Becoming Godlike

From the book, The Infinite Atonement, page 68, we read:

“It should be no surprise that as we become more godlike we become more powerful.  Knowledge brings power; purity brings power; love brings power.  The acquisition of each divine trait brings power.  Power and godhood are directly related…

In the world of physics, there is a law of thermodynamics known as the law of entropy.  It suggests that the universe, left to itself, would constantly move toward a state of disorder.  Stephen W. Hawking, the noted mathematician, described this law in layman’s terms:  ‘It is a matter of common experience that disorder will tend to increase if things are left to themselves.  (One has only to stop making repairs around the house to see that!)  He then amplifies as follows:

‘The explanation that is usually given as to why we don’t see broken cups gathering themselves together off the floor and jumping back onto the table is that it is forbidden by the second law of thermodynamics.  This says that in any closed system, disorder, or entropy, always increases with time.  In other words, it is a form of Murphy’s law:
Things always tend to go wrong!  An intact cup on the table is a state of high order, but a broken cup on the floor is a disordered state.  One can readily go from the cup on the table in the past to the broken cup on the floor in the future, but not the other way round.’

This disorder, or condition of progressive randomness, would proceed uninterrupted unless there were an intelligent, powerful force in the universe that could somehow reverse this natural course.  John Taylor spoke of such an intelligent force:

‘These laws which govern the universe, are under the surveillance and control of the great Law-giver, who manages, controls, and directs all these worlds.

If it were not the case, they would move through space in wild confusion and system would rush against system and worlds upon worlds would be destroyed together with their inhabitants.’

Certainly the creation was an awesome demonstration of these reversing powers.  The Atonement was another such manifestation…In the scriptures, the Atonement is referred to as power.  With the possible exception of the word ‘love,’ it seems to be the single most repeated word used to describe the atoning process.  Such power was a natural outgrowth of the Savior’s infinite nature.  Just as happiness cannot be acquired independent of obedience to God’s laws, so power cannot be permanently acquired independent of developing divine virtues.  You cannot have one without the other.  They are inseparably connected.”

Then from page 168, “Again and again the scriptures reveal the remedy for death.  It is power, not manpower, not atomic power, but the divine power of resurrection.  The effect of this divine power is far more than Lazarus being raised from the dead, multiplied many times over.  It does not just restore the dead to mortal life.  It does not just put the process of entropy in remission.

This is infinite power, only found in an infinite being, bringing both a permanent cure and an eternal enhancement.  This power somehow changes our bodies to a state free from the entropic process.  An immortal terrestrial body, like Adam’s in the Garden, is exempt from decay.  But a resurrected exalted body is the direct antithesis of entropy…As to the exact process by which it occurs, we do not know, but we can rest assured, that it will happen…”