This is only indirectly related to the topic of this blog, as it was said by a Fundie Christian, not a Jew. Nonetheless, I found this quote (presented as a proof against the possibility of evolution) and couldn't resist passing it along:
One of the most basic laws in the universe is the Second Law of Thermodynamics. This states that as time goes by, entropy in an environment will increase. Evolution argues differently against a law that is accepted EVERYWHERE BY EVERYONE. Evolution says that we started out simple, and over time became more complex. That just isn't possible: UNLESS there is a giant outside source of energy supplying the Earth with huge amounts of energy. If there were such a source, scientists would certainly know about it.
Sometimes you can't make this stuff up.
The Wolf
9 comments:
None of the other creationist arguments are any better.
Sounds reasonable to me.
The Second Law of Thermodynamics has nothing to do with evolution and the fundies know that very well. They trot it out in the same manner as saying the Zeno's Paradox means you can't ever actually go anywhere (a paradox which fairly screams quantum mechanics).
Ignore them.
Sometimes I wonder if these aren't anti-fundamentalists framing the typically poor arguments in absurd ways. But then I realize that Jacob Stein really exists, so who knows?
to amplify, evolution is a localized and temporary defiance of entropy. The order and useful energy states of living things are increased by a counter balancing incrase in disorder in the external environment: molecules become oxidized (occupy a lower energy state), nutrients are metabolized and lose their useful energy etc. In the end, all life on earth will cease, given enough time. Entropy wins, it just takes a while for this to happen. Which does at least vaguely agree with Adon Olam's vision that the world as we know it has a definite start and a definite end, in contrast to Hashem...
Strictly speaking, the overall entropy has to increase only in a closed system. Localized conditions of increasing order do not "defy entropy" if the locale is open to the universe outside it. Since we accept the possibility of input by HaShem when He chooses, we do not have to accept that the universe as a whole is a closed system--even in the thermodynamic sense.
The Minchas Elazar ZY"A took "v'acharei kichlos hakol" to mean "and after everything reaches its tachlis" (that is, its perfection in the time of Mashiach).
What exactly in this quote (presumably, by a laymen from Iowa) ticked you off most ?
It didn't tick me off... I just found it quite funny.
It was the fact that he (she?) missed the very obvious -- that there is a "giant outside source of energy supplying the Earth with huge amounts of energy." That doesn't necessarily mean that evolution is true, of course, but that doesn't excuse the awesomely stunningly stupid statement.
The Wolf
>That doesn't necessarily mean that evolution is true, of course, but that doesn't excuse the awesomely stunningly stupid statement.<
I guess I, a long-term lurker, should feel somewhat insulted for feeling that the Law would also apply to nature as a whole.
So can someone tell me what I am so glaringly missing?
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