RE: Scientific proof for a theist.
August 23, 2011 at 11:22 pm
(This post was last modified: August 23, 2011 at 11:25 pm by Rev. Rye.)
(August 23, 2011 at 9:20 pm)DraxQuin Wrote: Regarding this website claim that Evolution disagrees with the law of Thermodynamics, what is the explanation for this?
Here it is from Talk.origins
Claim The second law of thermodynamics says that everything tends toward disorder, making evolutionary development [which is order from disorder] impossible.
FACT: The second law of thermodynamics says no such thing. It says that heat will not spontaneously flow from a colder body to a warmer one or, equivalently, that total entropy (a measure of useful energy) in a closed system will not decrease. This does not prevent increasing order because the earth is not a closed system; sunlight (with low entropy) shines on it and heat (with higher entropy) radiates off. This flow of energy, and the change in entropy that accompanies it, can and will power local decreases in entropy on earth. Entropy is not the same as disorder. Sometimes the two correspond, but sometimes order increases as entropy increases. (Aranda-Espinoza et al. 1999; Kestenbaum 1998) Entropy can even be used to produce order, such as in the sorting of molecules by size (Han and Craighead 2000). Even in a closed system, pockets of lower entropy can form if they are offset by increased entropy elsewhere in the system.
In short, order from disorder happens on earth all the time.
FACT: The only processes necessary for evolution to occur are reproduction, heritable variation, and selection. All of these are seen to happen all the time, so, obviously, no physical laws are preventing them. In fact, connections between evolution and entropy have been studied in depth, and never to the detriment of evolution (Demetrius 2000). Several scientists have proposed that evolution and the origin of life is driven by entropy (McShea 1998). Some see the information content of organisms subject to diversification according to the second law (Brooks and Wiley 1988), so organisms diversify to fill empty niches much as a gas expands to fill an empty container. Others propose that highly ordered complex systems emerge and evolve to dissipate energy (and increase overall entropy) more efficiently (Schneider and Kay 1994).
And, for the record, there's no evidence that John Michael Fischer has any sort of degree. The most information I've been able to find about him on the internet says he is apparently from Alabama. I've done everything short of asking him (His email address is on his home page, but considering all the things I'm going through right now, between getting my basement back in order and all the stuff surrounding my college transfer, I don't feel like getting into a debate with a crank who sees fit to make every discipline of science his bitch), but I seriously doubt he has an actual degree, certainly nothing related to science.
Comparing the Universal Oneness of All Life to Yo Mama since 2010.
I was born with the gift of laughter and a sense the world is mad.
I was born with the gift of laughter and a sense the world is mad.