Evolution Violates the Second Law of Thermodynamics

Myth #5. Evolution Violates the Second Law of Thermodynamics

Every time I hear this, my first question is "What are the other laws?" I'm usually met with a blank stare. Other than the fact that most people have no idea what the Second Law of Thermodynamics actually states, I don't know why this one keeps getting offered up for denial of evolution. The Second Law of Thermodynamics basically states that randomness (disorder) cannot decrease in an isolated system. The problem with this argument is that our planet is not an isolated system. That's it. It's the simplest and easiest creationist argument to negate.

If you're not familiar with the Laws of Thermodynamics, rest easy. It's not that difficult. The First Law deals with the conservation of energy - energy/matter can be neither created nor destroyed. The Second Law deals with the direction of that conservation - the entropy in an isolated system always increases or remains constant. The Third Law deals with Absolute Zero - energy will stop being produced once you reach 0? K. The Zeroth Law basically says that if two systems are in equilibrium with a third system, then they are also in equilibrium with each other.

What in the world does this have to do with evolution? Creationists frequently misinterpret the Second Law to say that things must go from order to disorder. God created order and now we must have disorder. Evolution is the reverse: disorder to order. Our sun continually provides us with energy, thus we are not in a closed system and evolution does not violate this law. If we plant and grow corn in a field, the ripe corn will have more usable energy than the seed that we initially put in the ground. Evolution is not the only example we have in nature where order can come from disorder. If you've ever seen a sand dune, a stalactite, a snow-covered roof, or lightning, you're watching order come from disorder. All of those things are made up of random disorder (grains of sand, snowflakes, energy) and none of them required any type of intelligent programming to produce that order. If we look closely, we can find many more examples of order from disorder in nature.