Page 84 - The Evolution Impasse 2

82 Open System

from the Sun; and that there fore, the en er gy-con ver sion sys tem be it open
Law of Entropy does not ap ply to or closed, will of fer no ad van tage for
the Earth, and that or dered, com plex ev o lu tion. No one claims that any
liv ing things can in deed emerge such com plex and con scious mech a -
from dis or dered, sim ple and in an i - nism ex ist ed in the con di tions of the
mate struc tures. pri me val Earth. At this point, ev o lu -
Yet there is a very clear dis tor tion tion ists can not ac count for how com -
of the facts here, be cause en er gy en - plex en er gy con ver sion sys tems,
ter ing a sys tem from out side is not such as pho to syn the sis, which even
suf fi cient to make that sys tem in to mod ern tech nol o gy can not re pro -
an or dered one. To make that en er gy duce — emerged in the first place.
ca pa ble of be ing used, spe cial mech - Whatever so lar en er gy reached
a nisms are need ed. For ex am ple, the pri me val Earth had no way of
con trol mech a nisms, an en gine and giv ing rise to or der. For one thing,
trans mis sion sys tems are need ed to the high er the tem per a ture ris es, the
har ness the en er gy gen er at ed from more ami no ac ids—the build ing
the fu el in an in ter nal com bus tion blocks of life—re sist form ing bonds
en gine. In the ab sence of such trans - in reg u lar se quen ces. Energy alone is
for ma tion sys tems, it will be im pos - not suf fi cient for ami no ac ids to
si ble to use that fu el's en er gy. form the far more com plex mol e cu -
The same ap plies to liv ing things, les of pro teins, and for pro teins to
which re ceive their en er gy from the give rise to cell or gan elles, which are
Sun. This so lar en er gy is turned in to more com plex still. This man i fest or -
chem i cal en er gy thanks to ex traor di - der is on ly pos si ble through our om -
na ri ly com plex en er gy-con ver sion nis cient Lord's cre a tion.
sys tems such as pho to syn the sis in In fact, many ev o lu tion ists open ly
plants and the di ges tive sys tems in ad mit that the claim about open sys -
an i mals and hu man be ings. In the tems is in valid and that it con flicts
ab sence of any of these con ver sion with ther mo dy nam ics. Although
sys tems, no or gan ism can sur vive. Professor John Ross of Harvard
For a liv ing thing with no en er gy- University holds ev o lu tion ist views,
con ver sion sys tem, the Sun will be he writes in a pa per in Chemical and
sim ply a source of de struc tive heat Engineering News that this claim is
and UV ra di a tion. un re al is tic and un sci en tif ic:
Therefore, any sys tem with out an . . . there are no known vi o la tions of the

The Evolution Impasse II