This is an attempt to claim that the second law of
thermodynamics implies an inevitable increase in entropy even in open
systems by quibbling with the verbiage "left to themselves." The
simple fact is that, unless "left to themselves" means "not acted upon
by any outside influence," disorder of systems can decrease. And since
outside influence is more often the rule in biological systems, order
can and does increase in them.
That the claim is false is not theory. Exceptions happens all the
time. For example, plants around my house are left to themselves every
spring, and every spring they produce order locally by turning carbon
from the air into plant tissue. Drying mud, left to itself, produces
orderly cracks. Ice crystals, left to themselves, produce arrangements
far more orderly than they would if I interfered. Freeze-thaw cycles
naturally sort stones into regular patterns (Kessler and Werner 2003).
How can a trend to disorder be invariable when exceptions are
ubiquitous? And why do creationists argue at such length for claims
that they themselves can plainly see are false?
Disorder and entropy are not the same. The second law of
thermodynamics deals with entropy, not disorder (although disorder
defined to apply to microscopic states can be relevant to
thermodynamics). There are no laws about disorder as people normally
use the word. (Styer 2000)
References:
Kessler, M. A. and B. T. Werner, 2003. Self-organization of sorted
patterned ground. Science 299: 380-383. See also: Mann, D., 2003.
On patterend ground. Science 299: 354-355.
Styer, Daniel F. 2000. Insight into entropy. American Journal of
Physics 68(12): 1090-1096.