Response by Robert Holloway to Helen Fryman

June 9, 2001

In an online debate about the 2nd law of thermodynamics and evolution, I challenged Helen Fryman to submit her views to an expert on thermodynamics for evalution. She and other creationists have claimed that evolution violates the Second Law of Thermodynamics. In a recent response, Helen quotes a lecturer in physical chemistry, one P.W. Atkins, and according to Helen, Mr. Atkins has stated that a decrease in entropy is "unnatural and must be contrived". Helen then goes on to rejoice over that statement because she apparently thinks that Mr. Atkins would agree with her that evolution violates the second law of thermodynamics. It seems to me that Helen is grasping at straws and is going to far in her conclusions.

What I had in mind is for Helen to submit her views to an expert in thermodynamics and ask the expert to comment specifically on the merits of her views. Clearly she has not done that or even anything close to that. I think that most experts would not agree with the statement that a decrease in entropy is "unnatural" because it happens naturally every day of the year. But whether Mr. Atkins' views are valid or not, it is clear that Helen has not had her views evaluated by an expert in the field of thermodynamics. Helen, maybe you can still submit your views to Mr. Atkins, if you consider him an expert. Since your reference is from 1994, he is probably still living and he might find it interesting to comment on your views. But if you cannot locate him, there are many other experts in the field of thermodynamics that you could locate....if you have the courage to do it.