General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Neil deGrasse Tyson destroys argument for intelligent design [View all]DetlefK
(16,423 posts)The argument of ID is the following:
2nd Law of Thermodynamics: In a closed system, entropy always increases over time.
But life is a state of matter with an exceptionally low entropy.
Conclusion: Life does not stem from a natural process.
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Their error: The 2nd Law of Thermodynamics is only valid in the mathematical limit of an infinitely large system without borders and with infinite particles.
Infinite particles => The probability for natural processes destroying entropy is zero, because you divide by infinity.
But we don't have infinite particles. In a realistic system we still have so many particles we cannot imagine (1 Mol = 6.022*10^23 particles) but it's still NOT infinity.
And from the simple model of Gay-Lussac's streaming-experiment, we can most easily calculate that in a system with a finite amount of particles the probability for entropy spontaneously being destroyed is astronomically tiny, but it NEVER reaches zero.
Conclusion: The argument of ID DOES NOT exclude natural processes as a cause for life-formation.