As Promised, a Response to the Entropy Question

• Hillary – One of the laws of science states that entropy (disorganization) continually increases. How does this align with evolution?
  
  
  I believe that this is the question that was asked of me that I blanked out on. I had seen this discussed before, but could not come up with a response for the life of me. I'll blame it on the nerves of being in front of over 700 people. As a chemical engineer, I'm so ashamed that I blanked on the thermo question, but for some reason I was thinking about it differently than how it was asked. I'm trying not to beat myself up too much.
  
  
  The second law of thermodynamics only applies to a closed system, which is not what the Earth is. Energy is introduced to the Earth from the Sun. In a whole system, there may be a localized decrease in entropy, while the overall entropy for the entire universe increases. This is why we can actually see increased organization on Earth. From the standpoint of entropy, what is the difference if God did it or if it happened by a natural phenomenon? Either way, energy is introduced that increases order. In the case of evolution, this takes place bit by bit in tiny increments over long periods of time, eventually adding up to big differences.