Listened to much of Dawkins’ interview (archive should be around by tomorrow to listen). Two notes.
A physician with a biology degree asked the 2nd-law-of-thermodynamics question. You could tell he was peeved. A friend of mine who asked me this was mollified when I pointed out that if you had a small group of protists in a sealed jar in the dark the ecosystem would eventually run out of steam because the system is closed (you would have a die off of photosynthesists initially, but eventually those who consume the photosynthesists would die, and then scavengers would hit the end of the line, etc.). On the other hand, if you left the jar on the window sill, the ecosystem might manage quite well for a long time because photosynthesis can occur because the sun is providing energetic input into the system. That doesn’t mean that the universe isn’t winding down over the long haul, but there are localized reversals….
He frothed a bit, but I was surprised that he had good words to say about the Pope and stated that many Christians accepted evolution. I think he’s soft-pedalling for his American audience because he has little patience for the intersection between theism & evolution in his published work. But perhaps he’s had a change of heart.
Posted by razib at 02:33 PM