Origins

The scientific basis of the origin of life is not yet understood. If the intelligent design (ID) crowd wants to stake a claim there, they have my blessing, for what it's worth (nothing). It would be nice if they made a testable prediction.

Meanwhile, scientists will continue to try to understand the biology, chemistry, and physics of the origin of life. I expect substantial progress along this line of attack in the next two decades or so.

Concerning the evolution of life since that long ago origin, ID has got nothing. All the known data on the origin and development of species are consistent with Darwinian evolution.

In the unlikely event that any IDers read this, please try to understand the second law of thermodynamics before you start citing it. A couple of good places that should provide adequate explanation are Sear's An introduction to thermodynamics, the kinetic theory of gases, and statistical mechanics or Kittel and Kroemer's Thermal Physics . Talk to me when you can do the problems.

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