Darwin didn't knew thermodynamics!

Chemistry Level 1

In many discussions on internet, we can see some criationists saying that the evolution, as proposed by Darwin, contradicts the beautiful Second Law of Thermodynamics, which states that no isolated system can decrease its entropy. The process of evolution, which we can see as a bunch of separated molecules coming more and more together to form all sort of complex creatures, would cause a decrease in entropy of the isolated system, Earth - so they say. This argument is mistaken, because:

They're right and Darwins sucks! The entropy of Earth increases when the animals are decomposed The gas liberated in respiration by all living creatures increases Earth's entropy Earth isn't an isolated system. It have a energy source: the sun light.

1 solution

Gabriel Vasto
Feb 11, 2019

To calculate entropy change in the process of whole evolution is probably impossible. Many biochemical reactions works with a decrease in entropy, but always with a decrease in Gibbs free energy too. Therefore, we cannot say for sure that the decomposition of the living creatures or the gas they release is sufficient to balance this biochemical reactions, which could or not result in a positive increase in entropy for the system Earth. But notice that Earth itself is not sujected to the limitations of the Second Law, because it's not an isolated system. An isolated system can't interchange energy with its surrounds. Earth, instead, is constantly receiving energy from the sun light. Hence, it doesn't matter if its entropy increases or decreases within the process of Evolution, because it doesn't need to increase in order to still satisfy all Thermodynamic known laws.

Hi Gabriel. Just a comment on the problem.

Though the Earth does receive energy in the form of sunlight, raw energy is not really beneficial to evolution. Unless the energy is directed in an organized way, it will do more bad than good. It will tend to create entropy, not order.

Also, though the Earth is not an isolated system, the universe as a whole is. When we look at the entire universe, we know that the Second Law must hold. Thus, since the whole universe is becoming increasingly disordered, it must have started in an ordered state at the beginning. Science and reason demand that order cannot come from disorder, and thus there must have been some cause at work to create the universe and all of its order to begin with.

Ideas like "The Big Bang" make no sense: how could order come of an explosion? (Not to mention where the explosion came from in the first place) Clearly, intelligence must have created all this order.

This is a great article on the subject: https://creation.com/the-second-law-of-thermodynamics-answers-to-critics

David Stiff - 1 year, 9 months ago

@David Stiff Seriously man. Don't embarrass yourself anymore.

Intelligent creation and design is all super rubbish. Computer simulations show that the creation of life is as commonplace as a rock rolling down a hill.

Krishna Karthik - 5 months, 3 weeks ago

Darwin didn't knew thermodynamics!

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