Posted on 12/30/2001 2:08:09 PM PST by Exnihilo
I have no idea what you're talking about. It certainly isn't evolution. You might find it instructive to read a text on the subject -- not a rant written by some ignorant gadfly, but a book written by a biologist for the purpose of introducing the topic to the public. There are hundreds that will do the job. Then at least you'll understand that evolution is a well-grounded biological phenomenon, not a cult of mystics.
Your wish is my command:
Fact is: You don't know squat about thermodynamics. All biological systems are endothermic. Ipso facto all living things are at the bottom end of an enthalpy gradient. This is consistent with the fact that most people believe the sun exists (the high end of the enthalpy gradient).I get tired of repeating it, and nobody ever refutes it, but thermodynamics allows for local decreases in entropy if the total entropy of the system increases. Biological organisms are examples of decreases in entropy. Massive quantities of enthalpy are expended to reverse entropy (as allowed in thermodynamics) and enormous quantities of entropy are created in the enthalpy transfer. So what is so hard to understand?
And a little more food for thought: If thermodynamics precludes the possibility of evolution, then it also precludes the existence of things such as diamonds, which are also local reversals of entropy by the massive expenditure of enthalpy. Do you believe diamonds exist?
81 posted on 1/1/02 4:15 PM Pacific by tortoise
That was a concise, well-explained quote from one of my fellow "ameoba worshipers," to which you have yet to respond, yet you somehow find the time to throw around remarks like this:
Got it? Or is reading too hard for you? Or is comprehension something beyond you? Fact is: Thermodynamics is at odds with evolution. Don't like it? Tough.79 posted on 1/1/02 3:07 PM Pacific by Darksheare
It is fairly clear who on this thread has been arguing facts and who has been throwing around insults in place of facts and logical argumentation. It is also fairly obvious which of us have actually studied Thermodynamics and who hasn't.
The operative term here is that you've been "exposed."
You: That Was written by a prominant evolutionist. Go check.
I assume that you don't intend to become informed on the subject. You may well understand, therefore, how much attention people will pay to your opinions.
What the @#$% is this man talking about? Can't he read the Bible? The earth is only a little over 6000 years old!
He can't even read, and he calls himself a scientist! ;-)
101 posted on 1/6/02 5:41 PM Pacific by PatrickHenry
Well grounded---swamp gas-quicksand--body snatchers...
not a cult of mystics---misfits--freaks--zombies--intellectual amazons---frankenstiens!
Did you know B. F. Skinner raised his daughter in a box--she killed herself?
Wow you're right! I'm like totally born again!
While I doubt the "you better do it quick" was a serious attempt to actually persuade you, your premise is faulty.
There is nothing superstitious about it. That anyone would be out to "get you", again, is not a serious point on your part. "Superstition", and "imaginary" are used to characature your opposition.
Not that you are interested, but what you scoff at is a gift rather than something to be earned.
The reactions to people of faith in these "crevo" threads gives me the mental picture of a man who's walked unknowingly into an invisible spiderweb. He gesticulates violently against something that can hardly hurt him, and makes himself look like a goofball in the process.
How about the entire passage comparing the appearance of "t" after "e" in words to creation? Does he have a corresponding example for chinese, which the greatest percentage of humans speaks? And if he did, which I doubt, so what?
No, definitely not.
"To paraphrase, 'All complex systems degenerate into entropy.'"
No, the proper paraphrase is that the entropy in any CLOSED SYSTEM increases. The earth is not a closed system, since energy comes from the sun. It's the energy from the sun that allows complex systems to form on earth.
"How convenient to forget that, eh? Evolution states just the opposite, 'Entropy degenerates into complex systems.'"
Do you honestly think that we mechanical engineers would allow biologists to "forget" (disregard) the laws of thermodynamics? Not bloody likely!
"I've always thought this was an interesting question... no-one has ever seriously explained it away."
I just did. And literally thousands of people knowledgable about thermodynamics have tried to explain this simple fact (that earth isn't a closed system, so entropy on earth need not always increase) to folks like you, but y'all (Southern expression) simply aren't listening.
"And it is a religion."
No, evolution is a testable scientific theory.
If one BELIEVED in evolution, one would indeed need faith. But scientifically oriented people like me don't BELIEVE in evolution. We simply recognize it as by far the most compelling theory for why plants and animals look like they do...and, in a larger sense, have the DNA they have.
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