[johnnyb_61820]

I think he failed to mention one important caveat, and that is that what he is saying is true unless there is a specific mechanism to cause a local increase in order. I think he meant for that to be implied, but nonetheless it was missing.

[Chani]

pong for later

[SteveMcKing]

God is a perfect Carnot cycle.

[Strategerist]

It's nice to know there are things you can count on like the Swallows Returning to Capistrano, and creationists completely misunderstanding the Second Law of Thermodynamics in a hilarious and embarassing way.

Only new twist to this one is that it's an actual professor in the Texas State University system, which doesn't really reflect well on Texas.

[LiteKeeper]

Agreed

[My2Cents]

Anyone who has made such an argument is familiar with the standard reply: the Earth is an open system, it receives energy from the sun, and order can increase in an open system

When I leave things out in the sun, they tend to deteriorate, not evolve into something more complex.

[Fiddlstix]

BTTT

[truth_seeker]

I just read an article on the lack of science progress in the muslim world.

Teaching Darwinian evolution is against the law, in Saudi Arabia.

[ikka]

Remember folks: hydrogen is a colorless, odorless gas, which if given enough time, will turn into people like you and me. T

[Cicero]

Yes, a nice piece of work. And, no, he doesn't misunderstand the second law of thermodynamics. This article nicely raises most of the basic problems with the theory of evolution. What it comes down to, finally, is statistical anaylysis. The probability of things evolving into the incredible degree of complexity we see on earth around us are more than astronomical. And, as he points out, although you can have a statistical anomaly at one small point, an eddy in the general heat (and carbon) decay of the universe, there's nothing observably "coming in the door" from outer space by meteorites, radiation, and a few random particles and gases.

[js1138]

The fact that American Spectator could be so pig ignorantly wrong on a noncontroversial scientific topic does not speak well of their overall reliability.

[Tax-chick]

bttt

[keithtoo]

That would mean that there was information locally to direct the order. Where did that information come from? How was it stored? How was it replicated?

This issue is not going away.

What you will see over time is that more Religious scientists, agnostic scientists, and even athiest scientists will throw up their hands and admit, either enthusiastically or grudgingly that the theory is broken.

[pdunkin]

bump for later

[phantomworker]

unless there is a specific mechanism to cause a local increase in order

What exactly do you mean by that! Can you give an example?

[Born to Conserve]

This is not a scientist doing science, it is a theologian doing theology. I wish someone would tell him so.

[VadeRetro]

According to this reasoning, then, the second law does not prevent scrap metal from reorganizing itself into a computer in one room, as long as two computers in the next room are rusting into scrap metal -- and the door is open.

Whee! Somebody hand this dumb bleep a stack of bar coasters and tell him it's his Nobel Prize! I guess it doesn't take much to be published in the Spectator.

[GOPPachyderm]

Cause that local increase in order and then freeze it so it doesn't decay into disorder!

[phantomworker]

Ping.

A lot of silly creo talk! LOL!

A lot of silly creo talk! LOL!

[taxesareforever]

According to this reasoning, then, the second law does not prevent scrap metal from reorganizing itself into a computer in one room, as long as two computers in the next room are rusting into scrap metal -- and the door is open.

Great analogy.

[facedown]

non-equilibrium thermodynamics