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From: ethan@utastro.UUCP (Ethan Vishniac)
Newsgroups: net.origins
Subject: thermodynamics (yet again!)
Message-ID: <479@utastro.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 4-Sep-84 11:18:17 EDT
Article-I.D.: utastro.479
Posted: Tue Sep  4 11:18:17 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 25-Sep-84 00:45:31 EDT
Distribution: net
Organization: UTexas Astronomy Dept., Austin, Texas
Lines: 33

Warning - This article suffers from quote-in-mouth syndrome

>>>What kind of evidence should one expect to find from such a model? The
>>>Laws of Thermodynamics are an obvious conclusion, and fit well within
>>>the model.

>>I'm just a country boy... what aspects of the law of Thermodynamics 
>>does creationism fit that is not adequately covered by more traditional
>>explanations?

>The transition from order to disorder.  Life requires/is characterized by
>order.

Sigh... This is not a response.  Thermodynamics does *not* forbid a local
decrease in entropy (or an increase in order - yes I know the two are not
precisely equivalent).  It does set conditions on when this is to be expected.
The surface of the Earth provides an environment in which this is possible.
Most life survives by taking sunlight (color temperature ~6000 K) and
degrading to photons with a typical energy corresponding to a temperature
of ~300 K).  This waste is disposed of into interstellar space (which has a
*very* low energy content).  Were the
sun to cease to exist, or were the interstellar medium to be in thermodynamic
equilibrium with the surface of the Earth, life as we
know it would be impossible.  From a thermodynamic point of view, the
maintenance of life is not very different from its origin.  Both involve
lowering the entropy in certain places.  Neither violates any laws of
thermodynamics.
                         
"Cute signoffs are for     Ethan Vishniac
         perverts"         {charm,ut-sally,ut-ngp,noao}!utastro!ethan
                           Department of Astronomy
                           University of Texas
                           Austin, Texas 78712