continued…

Several times various religiously inclined people have assured me that the Second Law of Thermodynamics forbids evolution. This is a cleverly constructed piece of nonsense that is almost worthy of a Douglas Adams character. The argument usually goes like this: Thermodynamics says that any system tends to go from a state of order towards a state of disorder and chaos. Evolution states that biological entities grow more complex over time. Since thermodynamics is a proven physical process, evolution has to be wrong because it contradicts the law of entropy.

This argument is wrong on so many different levels and from so many angles I am not sure where to begin. At the beginning would probably be best.

The Second Law of Thermodynamics does in fact state that the overall entropy of a closed system must increase. That doesn’t mean that an isolated part of the system can’t increase in complex order. It just means that if a part of the system increases in order it does so by the expenditure of energy and with the consequential result that disorder must increase in the rest of the system. Furthermore, the disorder will increase in the rest of the system more than the order increased in that small part of the system. If things were otherwise how would people be born and grow? Apparently, the laws of physics apply to humans but not to evolution or the rest of the universe? Obviously, Conservative Bible Belters are also of the opinion (like their Liberal enemies) that human beings are not a natural part of the universe. Also worth mentioning, it is not yet known whether or not the universe can be regarded as a closed or open system. The universe is everything that exists. It is not yet known if it is possible to make a determination on the entropy of everything that exists regarded as a system. I recently read a paper by one physicist that pointed out this problem (there are still some of us interested in learning about reality before making wild claims and assertions). If it turns out the universe can not be regarded a closed system then its overall entropy doesn’t necessarily have to increase. Some parts of the universe might actually be considered forever isolated from one another if light can’t ever surmount the distance at which these parts are expanding and receding from each other.