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Below is a list of topics. Clicking a topic will open a list of questions/comments on that topic. Clicking one of these will open my response to that question/comment.
Keep in mind that these can go back a few years.
Abortion
Global Warming
God - Christianity
Creation vs Evolution
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Scientists have not begun to suggest there is a designer guiding evolution. Your answer is factually incorrect.
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What was the hardest concept of evolutionary theory that stopped you from understanding and accepting the evidence for evolution?
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There are several things that make evolution hard to swallow for me. The main one is the 2nd law of thermodynamics, which in effect states that all systems tend toward disorder. Gradual evolution requires an increase in order. Not just a small increase, but one of great magnitude - with the 2nd law of thermodynamics conveniently turned off the entire time. (Notice that entropy - the 2nd law of thermodynamics - is a law and evolution is still just a theory even after all the years since it was proposed. Were evolution proven, it would also be a law.)
One of the others is the extreme complexity of cellular function. Cellular biologists are finding it hard, given all of what they’ve learned over the years, to believe that the level of complexity they are seeing happened all by itself.
Yet another is the evidence learned in the past 20 years or so regarding the formation of a planet that can even support life in the first place. The list of required conditions is now over 200 last I heard, and the chances that all of them lined up at the same time on their own are essentially zero. |
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The Earth is not a closed system. Argument debunked in any basic physics textbook.
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Any system can be referred to as being not closed until you get to the whole of physical existence because there is always something outside it with the ability to have an effect on any system within the whole. That in no way negates the 2nd law of thermodynamics.
Take for example a glass of hot water containing ice cubes. You could say ‘this is not a closed system because other elements can interact with it.’ Now, once those ice cubes melt (a decrease in order, or an increase in entropy, leaving a glass of room temperature water) how long do you think it would take for the water to become hot again and the ice cubes to form again within that hot water? For that to happen, an increase in order (a decrease in entropy) would need to occur within the glass. A human being could make this happen because human beings ALREADY EXIST. That’s the key. At a point where nothing of order existed IN THE UNIVERSE, what or who caused the increase in order?
You can’t just claim that anyone who disagrees with you is a scientific illiterate. Many PHDs (it’s something more than 500, not sure the exact count currently) have signed off on their doubt related to the theory of gradual evolution. A number of scientists VERY well-known in their fields have voiced this doubt. Unfortunately there are still those who cling to the theory of evolution like their very life depends on it, even though Darwin himself stated at the time his ‘On Origin Of Species’ was released that there was no evidence of gradual evolution across species but he hoped that evidence would eventually appear. More than 150 years later it still hasn’t, which is why it’s still just a theory. Just because a book has been written, even a textbook, does not automatically make its contents true and verified.
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| Q |
The 2nd Law of Thermodynamics applies to physical systems not biological systems. Biological systems are open systems - order increases it does not decrease.
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The 2nd law of thermodynamics applies to all systems. I’ve never seen it worded anywhere with physical systems and biological systems having separate definitions. Even in writings specifically devoted to biology it is worded similar to this:
"The second law of thermodynamics which can be stated in several forms says that the universe always tends towards increasing disorder: 'In all natural processes, the entropy of the universe increases.' According to famous 19th century physicist R.J. Clausius (1879), the second law of thermodynamics states that 'the entropy of the universe tends towards a maximum'."
In ALL systems an increase in entropy is a decrease in order, and maximum entropy is a complete lack of order (kind of like a teenager's bedroom).
Order NEVER increases in ANY system without influence from outside that system.
The bottom line is that all systems roll up to a closed system at some point and that all closed systems tend toward disorder. Yes, a little order can be caused in an open system from another system, but this order will not last because the parent closed system will not be able to maintain that increase in order. This all boils down to ‘it doesn’t matter whether a referenced system is open or closed, it will tend toward disorder’.
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Open systems - those that input energy, but also those that input information - become more organized rather than disorganized.
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First, a system does not apply energy on its own unless a force outside the system enables, or has already enabled, this to occur.
Secondly, scientists determined long ago that information, or intelligence, does not evolve from nothing. It must be applied from or by a source that already exists.
Thirdly, the 2nd law does not say anything about any system becoming more organized on its own. It says just the opposite, that all systems tend toward disorder.
You can dance around the definition of the 2nd law all you like, but no amount of word juggling or twisting will change the meaning of the law as originally written and accepted by scientists of all disciplines.
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You forget that the order is coming from the energy produced by the sun, which is losing order at a much larger scale. So, sunlight feeds plants that feed animals. All the while the total system is tending towards disorder - a little order along the way doesn’t present a problem for thermodynamics.
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While energy comes from the sun, and provides input to various systems on the earth, order does not come from the sun. For example, if the energy of the sun was all that was needed for life to flourish then you could lay a dead plant out in the sun and it would be revived. Obviously this will not occur - actually, the sun would just hasten the decay of the plant.
Yes, a little order is applied to a system from time to time, but that order comes from a source that already exists and is capable of providing that order. What or who applied the order in the beginning, when there was nothing?
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Which science says the universe is not infinite? Not NASA How Big is the Universe?
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The last statement at that link is this:
"This suggests that the universe is infinite in extent; however, since the universe has a finite age, we can only observe a finite volume of the universe," NASA says on their website. "All we can truly conclude is that the universe is much larger than the volume we can directly observe."
See what I mean about dancing around the facts? It says 'infinite in extent' but then in the same sentence says 'the universe has a finite age'. If it has a finite age then common sense says that it is finite. Were it truly infinite then it would have no age.
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Response to a comment that because micro-evolution has been observed (evolution within a phylum) that macro-evolution (evolution across phyla) must be a given because they are part of the same process.
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The fact that there is no macro-evolution example certainly does matter. For example, if I say "I can lift 10 pounds (micro example) this proves that I can lift 1000 pounds (macro example). I don’t need to prove it, it can just be assumed. After all, both utilize the very same processes. They’re the same in the end." No, they’re not.
A goose (the Hawaiian Nene goose in this example) losing much of the webbing on its feet over time because webbing was not needed to walk on volcanic rock is certainly vastly different than that same goose turning into a hyena or some other animal.
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Response to a comment that if I don’t believe in evolution that I am a science denier.
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I am not a science denier, I love science. As someone who lovI am not a science denier, I love science. As someone who loves science I will continue to question outlandish statements that go far outside what is shown by the fossil record or any research to date only because the more reasonable explanation is unpalatable. When science is forced into a predefined mold only to avoid an undesired conclusion then it stops being science and becomes religion.
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That provides some detail on the 2nd law, but notice near the bottom of the page under 'The 2nd Law in Nonequilibrium Systems'. It’s referring to open systems here and suggests how to reference entropy in these systems, suggesting that entropy (otherwise known as the 2nd law) can apply to open systems.
In the end it doesn’t change the overall physics. All systems roll up to a closed system at some point and all closed systems tend toward disorder. As I’ve stated before, a little order can be caused in an open system from another system, but this order will not last because the parent closed system will not be able to maintain that increase in order. So it doesn’t matter whether a referenced system is open or closed - it will tend toward disorder.
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What do creationists say about the global flood?
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How do you convince someone that they just don't understand when they say things like, "I'm not convinced by evolution"?
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If you can’t convince them then there are three possibilities:
- They are unable or unwilling to listen
- Your assertion is not proven and therefor not convincing enough to sway them
- You are wrong
In the case of #1, you can keep trying or just move on.
In the case of #2, you have some work to do. If you can’t find the evidence, #3 may apply.
In the case of #3, you may be the one who doesn’t understand and may need to adjust your own thinking.
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