Entropy and Life
To argue that evolution is inconsistent with the second law of thermodynamics it is usually stated that evolution is a continual process of achieving higher order and design, which is against the second law. This is an argument based on casual definition of terms, rather than on quantification of order, design, and entropy. I hope that by this point it is reasonably clear that this argument actually has little if anything to do with the second law of thermodynamics. How would one propose to measure the relative order or design increase that would accompany any evolutionary step? What number represents the difference between standing erect and walking on all fours, between having only day vision and between having also developed night vision...? If we cannot answer such questions, then arguments about order and design will fall outside the realm of science.
To determine whether anything about the chemical processes of life violates the second law of thermodynamics requires looking at all the process on an individual basis. If there is no violation in the absorption of sunlight, or in any subsequent reactions, then there cannot be any violation of the second law as the net sum of such reactions (see the previous section on scaling). I am not personally aware of any such individual spots where the second law is violated. In fact, the second law is about as close as science comes to having sacrosanct laws. Any violations of this law that were discovered anywhere, no matter how small they were, would be very big news... I'm sure I would have heard of it.
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The theory of gravity doesn't explain everything about the universe.
As a matter of fact, you’d think entropy would prevent it.
Nothing about entropy would prevent evolution.
It would ........ in a closed system.
However, the Earth is not a closed system and the Earth receives a gargantuan amount of solar energy that is then used to create order in Earthly biological systems.
The price paid for the increase in complexity of the biological changes on Earth is the increasing disorder on the Sun because of the consumption of the Sun's fuel.
The architect, the carpenters, the electricians, the masons, the roofers, etc., can build a more complex structure (a 4 bedroom house) out of a pile of disorganized materials only because they consume hundreds of pounds of food. The entropy price paid for that 4 bedroom house is the increase in the disorder of herds of cows and acres of wheat that were turned into Big Macs and the organized molecules of those Big Macs that were further disorganized into exhaled CO2 and H2O.
In the Solar System, the Sun is the equivalent of McDonald's.