biology section isnt that active?

Question

not enough people are answering in the biology section so i'll put the question here

How is that life on earth as we know it evolved from soup when

second law of thermodynamics says that "The entropy of an isolated system not at equilibrium will tend to increase over time, approaching a maximum value."

Answer 1

True for a ISOLATED system, so you must include all inputs to it as time -> infinity.

Localized pockets can decrease in entropy and still not contradict this law.

Answer 2

As someone else has pointed out the fundamental point is that earth is not an isolated system in thermodynamic terms. Energy is flowing in through the sun, and absorbed into life through photosynthesis.

It's very unwise to ask biology questions in religion and spirituality if you actually want an accurate answer. There is a high turnover here, but a lot of it is hot air. And once questions are off the first page they never get answered.

In biology people actually look through the questions and will answer in time... it takes a little longer, but you are far more likely to get a sensible answer.

Answer 3

There are problems with the idea of entropy. There are problems determining the initial state. There are problems with saying the system is isolated. There are problems saying life evolved from soup.

Biologists tend not to be physicists. Religionists tend not to be scientists, and tend not to understand evolution anyway, so there will be no answer to the question in this section.

Try the physics section.

Answer 4

Chaos theory has shown us that order and disorder are often somewhat illusory, depending on your scale of reference or your frame of time. A system may appear to have no order in it at all. Waves on a surface influenced by multiple forces may appear without any form or order, but then the forces will fall into a previously unobserved syncronicity, and the waves will take on the aspect of order for a while. This is an answer I intuit as applicable. However it is offered in the spirit that your question is really quite a good one.

Life indeed seems to openly defy the 2nd law of thermodynamics by striving evolutionarily to what appears to be a greater degree of order.

I would suggest, finally that there are other possible answers to the question. a) Perhaps the 2nd law of thermodynamics is not the absolute law we think it to be, but rather just another constant that turns out to be variable, as we now think the absolute force of gravity and the speed of light are. b) perhaps there is something going on with life as a force that we cannot fully conceive. Though I do not profess to absolute faith in a god of any sort, in this regard I cannot fully reject the idea of a higher level of ordering intelligence (yes I really said that) c) but perhaps the illusion of rising to a higher level of order that life shows us is a result of a misplaced perspective on our part, a misunderstanding of the nature of time itself. A misunderstanding that we cannot help because we are ourselves living things and embedded in time/space in a way that causes us to suffer this specific illusion about the nature of living things.

I don't think you're going to get many answers to your question, but I believe it is one of the best I've seen on these boards.

Answer 5

Perhaps you might start by going to the correct science. I'd start with physics. Thy might be able to tell you about energy through-put ratios, localized entropy systems, etc. Just a suggestion.

By the way, that particularly lame canard is hardly ever used anymore by opponents of evolution. Actually all they had to do was put a bucket of water out in the sun and think about it for all of ten minutes. At least try to keep up with the ever-dwindling pseudo-arguments - they do tend to disappear rather quickly.

Answer 6

Our system is not isolated. We get energy from the sun.

okay, I won't judge you based on the typo, however...

By getting energy from the sun earth is not an "isolated system" as the law states. The earth doesn't fit the model. You say, "that doesn't explain anything" but in reality your argument doesn't explain anything because it's fallacious.

Answer 7

Life on earth didn't evolve from soup. Read Genesis 1 in the bible. That's the only explanation anyone needs.

Answer 8

The only way entropy can be reversed is by reordering it, That required ADDING INFORMATION to the system. Standard evolutionary theory cannot do this. But interestingly, if God is allowed into the system to add information, the machinery works.

Answer 9

it is transforming into consumer-friendly in some evangelical circles to highlight the "god needs us to be stewards of the earth" factor. interesting to make certain if this could be between the failings that reasons the inevitable rift between the republican occasion and christian fundamentalism. i've got continually questioned why fundamentalists could vote promptly republican in accordance with a handful of subject concerns and forget approximately all of the different egregious departures from biblical doctrine by ability of the republican occasion.

Answer 10

If you leave a bowl of soup on the side for a very very long time it will grow new life forms. Usually fluffy and green/grey!