Robert T. Pennock

About the author: Robert T. Pennock is assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Texas at Austin.

Creationists long have argued that evolution violates the universal second law of thermodynamics. The second law states that closed systems tend to become highly disordered over time. Since evolution involves an increase over time in the order of systems as they move from simple to complex, evolution would appear to be inconsistent with the second law of thermodynamics. Recent studies, however, have shown that this is not true. In fact, it is possible that the Second Law actually may play a creative role in evolution.

One of the most common arguments that creationists make against evolution is that it supposedly violates the second law of thermodynamics, which states that closed systems...