Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Thermodynamics: So Much Heat, So Little Light
Red State Rabble set a new record yesterday with two separate posts on the Second Law of Thermodynamics.
First, we noted that Mike Riddle, a representative of the young earth creationist group Answers in Genesis, would focus on such things as "the laws of thermodynamics," in a series of lectures, "Fascinating Facts About Origins," to students at Potosi High School and John A. Evans Middle School in southeast Missouri.
Later in the day, we came back to the subject again in a post about Eric Hovind, of Creation Science Evangelism -- a regular chip off the old Hovind block -- who asserts that simple one-cell organisms could not have evolved over time into more complex organisms because the Second Law of Thermodynamics says that all things in the universe tend toward disorder as time goes by.
As Answers in Genesis so cogently explains:
If the Second Law of Thermodynamics means that all things tend toward disorder. That things fall apart. That single cell creatures could not have evolved into complex multi-cell organisms like oak tress, salamanders, pilot fish, king snakes, ostriches, and giraffes. How is it that a single fertilized egg is able to develop into a human being with multiple organ systems made up of an estimated 100 trillion cells?
First, we noted that Mike Riddle, a representative of the young earth creationist group Answers in Genesis, would focus on such things as "the laws of thermodynamics," in a series of lectures, "Fascinating Facts About Origins," to students at Potosi High School and John A. Evans Middle School in southeast Missouri.
Later in the day, we came back to the subject again in a post about Eric Hovind, of Creation Science Evangelism -- a regular chip off the old Hovind block -- who asserts that simple one-cell organisms could not have evolved over time into more complex organisms because the Second Law of Thermodynamics says that all things in the universe tend toward disorder as time goes by.
As Answers in Genesis so cogently explains:
Just standing out in the sun won’t make you more complex—the human body lacks the mechanisms to harness raw solar energy.Oh, by the way, according to our friends at Answers in Genesis, entropy, the second law, did not come into effect until after the fall -- no, not autumn, silly, the fall of man:
God withdrew some of His sustaining power at the Fall. He still sustains the universe Col. 1:17) otherwise it would cease to exist. But most of the time He doesn’t sustain it in the way that He prevented the Israelites’ shoes and clothes from wearing out during the 40 years in the wilderness (Dt. 29:5). But this special case may have been the rule rather than the exception before the Fall.RSR, being a bit contrarian by nature, would like to pose this question:
If the Second Law of Thermodynamics means that all things tend toward disorder. That things fall apart. That single cell creatures could not have evolved into complex multi-cell organisms like oak tress, salamanders, pilot fish, king snakes, ostriches, and giraffes. How is it that a single fertilized egg is able to develop into a human being with multiple organ systems made up of an estimated 100 trillion cells?
