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To: Modernman; PatrickHenry
The 2nd law only applies to closed systems. The earth is not a closed system. There is a giant nuclear reactor called the sun outside of the system that pumps more or less an endless supply of new energy into the system.

Not only that, but even if the earth was a closed system, that wouldn't guarantee the combined entropy of all systems on the earth is lower than it was in the past. The combined biomass of all life on earth is so insignificant next to the mass of the Earth that an increase in complexity of life would have no significant effect on its entropy. Even if the biomass itself was a closed system, there's no guarantee that its entropy is lower now than it was at any previous point in evolutionary history. Does 200 lbs. of protozoans have more or less entropy than a 200 lb. person? I don't know. Good luck to anyone trying to measure that!

Sorry about going off, but the whole 2nd Law of Thermodynamics argument is so off-the-wall and ludicrous that it boggles my mind; many creationists even know better than to use it.

133 posted on 09/09/2005 3:14:31 PM PDT by Quark2005 (Where's the science?)
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To: Quark2005
Sorry about going off, but the whole 2nd Law of Thermodynamics argument is so off-the-wall and ludicrous that it boggles my mind; many creationists even know better than to use it.

Yes, nevertheless, the granddaddy of all creationist websites, the Institute for Creation Research, has stuff like this posted:
Evolution, Thermodynamics, and Entropy, by Henry Morris. Excerpt:

Not only is there no evidence that evolution ever has taken place, but there is also firm evidence that evolution never could take place. The law of increasing entropy is an impenetrable barrier which no evolutionary mechanism yet suggested has ever been able to overcome. Evolution and entropy are opposing and mutually exclusive concepts. If the entropy principle is really a universal law, then evolution must be impossible.

134 posted on 09/09/2005 3:34:50 PM PDT by PatrickHenry (Discoveries attributable to the scientific method -- 100%; to creation science -- zero.)
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