Originally posted by UTEOTW:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Mike Gascoigne:
Yes, I have identified a problem.
What specifically is the problem?
Observation tells us, and thermodynamics allows, for local decreases in entropy to happen...</font>[/QUOTE]Entropy is just a mathematical quantity that defines heat content divided by temperature (Q/T). It increases when things are heated up, and it decreases when things are cooled down, but when heat is transferred from a hot body to a cold body, the overall effect is an increase in entropy. Some of the heat (but not all of it) can be converted to work during the transfer, but as the temperature difference decreases, the proportion of heat that can be converted into work decreases, so the system becomes useless. This is how entropy is a measure of uselessness.
The connection with disorder is not just entropy, it's the whole thermodynamic process, and the impact of energy transfer in an uncontrolled manner.
Now, it's getting past midnight here in the UK and I'm not staying up all night going through all the definitions piece by piece. If you want to know more about it you can read my book:
Impossible Theology: The Christian Evolutionist Dilemma.
www.annomundi.co.uk/bible/impossible_theology.htm
The truth is that you cannot answer because entropy does not prevent mutations...
Mutations are, to a large extent, a consequence of the distribution of energy. The Sun gives off heat, and at the same time it throws out all sorts of nasty radioactive particles that cause mutations. In that case, mutations are part of the thermodynamic process, and are just another example of the relentless march from order to disorder. Mutations do not contribute to evolution. In fact they are a reason why evolution should NOT happen, because they continuously destroy the information in the genome.
Originally posted by UTEOTW:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by Mike Gascoigne:
No, life is not impossible. It exists because God has created it.
Not what I meant. But I thnk you knew that.</font>[/QUOTE]No, I didn't know. I can't assume that someone believes in God's creative power just because they appear on Baptist Debate Forums (Baptist Only).
If order cannot come from disorder, then how does life manage to bring together raw materials and raw energy and mold them into something useful which then allows life to perpetuate itself. You say this is not possible. SO are you asserting that every living organism requires constant supernatural attention to remain alive because it is not thermodynamically possible or do you admit that the chemistry of life seems to do just fine despite your complaints?
God created everything perfect, but death came because of the fall, and since then everything has gradually deteriorated. People used to live for almost a thousand years, but after the flood their lives were shortened because of the depleted gene pool. Now we only live for about 70 years because our genes are so messed up, and if it was not for modern medicine, we would only live till about 50. If this was allowed to continue for a few thousand more years, humanity would become extinct because we would not live long enough to produce another generation.
And now I'm off to bed. Bye for now.
Mike