[I’ve recently received some copies of letters of Dr. Gordon H. Clark from the collection of Howard Long. These are the first new letters to have come to light in a few years. The total number of letters known is now somewhere around 935. As many are interested in Dr. Clark’s views on science, I thought it worthwhile to quote, as I do below, from this letter of Feb. 22, 1965]
…
You ask about the second law of thermodynamics, also the first. It would seem to me that any mathematical equation must be formulated by the methods described in The Philosophy of Science and Belief in God. Therefore they cannot be considered as true descriptions of natural motions. Some scientists attempt to replace the 2nd theorem by another law, which allows ups and downs – like a sine curve instead of a down sloping straight line. Both laws require both interpolation and extrapolation, and hence are not forced on us by experimental observation. The traditional law is useful within the range of our experience. The other law, the sine curve, with suggestions of stellar explosions by Gamow, may not be a law (an equation) at all, but only a verbal theory. Laws are always mathematical. It is not enough to say that pressure is more in a higher temperature, but one must say how much per degree etc.
…