DNAunion: Did some searches using combinations of keywords such as
"Creationist", "thermodynamics", "open", and "Earth". Here is some of what I
found.
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Evolution violates the 2nd law of thermodynamics.
Not true. The 2nd law of thermodynamics applies only to closed systems. The
Earth is not a closed system.
That if thermo could somehow forbid evolution, then it would also forbid
babies from growing to be adults, and parents from having children. In fact,
we are agents of entropy: we organize our bodies at the expense of the
organization of our environment, which we digest and burn.
Creationists often (ab)use the Second Law of Thermodynamics, apparently not
realizing that it explicitly states, "...in a closed system...". By
definition, a closed system cannot contain anything external to itself. A
Creator who is entirely bounded by His own creation seems non-sensical, and I
can't imagine that many creationists would accept such a limited God anyway.
Thus, God and Thermodynamics are mutually exclusive; to invoke the Second Law
is to claim that God left!!!!!
A subsequent portion of the outline again invokes entropy, stating that "all
species are degenerating, since disorder must increase". Ignoring the
Theological arguments for the moment, we reiterate, "...in a CLOSED
system...". Earth is hardly a closed system. To find a LARGE source of
negative entropy, one need only look upward on a clear day. The sun delivers
approximately 1 horse-power per square meter (sorry for the mixed units, I
don't recall the conversion factor to joules/sec) of free energy to the
biosphere. Likewise, meteors shower us with several tonnes per day of extra
mass, some of it in pre--biotic form - i.e. complex carbon molecules such as
formaldehyde and others. Larger objects such as comets and Icarus class
asteroid strikes transfer huge amounts of mass, energy, and momentum to the
earth. Orbital perturbations and decay, friction from the moon's gravity, and
radioactive decay, all add to the total. Sorry, entropy as a disproof of
cosmological and biological evolution simply won't wash. Spre
ad the word. [It appears that, more recently, the creationists have been
hammered enough with the inapplicability of the Second Law of Thermodynamics
that they have modified it slightly -- the reference is now to a closed
universe, not a closed Earth; the rest of the argument remains essentially
unchanged.]
Creationists say that systems cannot self-organize because that would violate
the second law of thermodynamics, never mind that such systems are not at
equilibrium and are open systems."
(http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-meritt/complexity.html#thermo)
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DNAunion: The author starts off immediately with a false statement! "The
2nd law of thermodynamics applies only to closed systems." Consider the
following:
"Speaking of the applicability of 2nd law to both "closed" (isolated) and
open systems in general, Harvard scientist Dr. John Ross (not a creationist)
affirms:
"...there are no known violations of the second law of thermodynamics.
Ordinarily the second law is stated for isolated systems, but the second law
applies equally well to open systems ... there is somehow associated with the
field of far-from equilibrium phenomena the notion that the second law of
thermodynamics fails for such systems. It is important to make sure that this
error does not perpetuate itself." [Dr. John Ross, Harvard scientist
(evolutionist), Chemical and Engineering News, vol. 58, July 7, 1980, p. 40]"
(http://www.trueorigin.org/isakrbtl.htm)
DNAunion: Also, note the explanation for the decrease in entropy associated
with evolution. "Earth is hardly a closed system. To find a LARGE source of
negative entropy, one need only look upward on a clear day. The sun delivers
approximately 1 horse-power per square meter (sorry for the mixed units, I
don't recall the conversion factor to joules/sec) of free energy to the
biosphere." The author continues by mentioning radioactive decay, asteroid
impacts, etc.
As usual, the "evolutionist" counter argument stopped at open-system
thermodynamics and never bothered to mention the other required half of the
solution. At no point in its 3.5 billion year history here on Earth did life
evolve solely because the Earth is an open system. This is a vague appeal to
open-system thermodynamics: it omits the biological "machinery" that harness
that available energy to accomplish biologically-relevant work.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Fri Nov 24 2000 - 17:03:54 EST