Redefining Reality - The Intellectual Implications of Modern Science

If the star is large enough, when it runs out of hydrogen to
convert into helium, it collapses on itself, imploding. This can
cause a supernova, in which the heavier elements made inside
the star are ejected into space. Those elements become the basis
for the formation of planets, when large clouds of cosmic debris
mass. This process gives us planets, including the Earth, but where
does life come from?
Virtually all life is found on landmasses and in the relatively shallow
waters around landmasses. We know from the fossil record that life
existed in the sea before it appeared on land. Simple one-celled
animals eventually gave rise to multicellular life, which eventually
developed into everything we see now. But how did those simple
one-celled organisms come to be?
environment is too cold, too hot, or too dry, there will be no life.
Early on, it seemed that conditions in the arctic ice and at the
bottom of the ocean could not sustain life. Thus, it was only in
sunlit regions that we looked for the source of life.
Sunlight is a source of energy, and energy is essential for life. Life, as
into proteins, which are then able to self-regulate and reproduce. But
these functions require energy. If the life form is not fed, it cannot
live. Life is organization, and organization requires energy.
The second law of thermodynamics holds that entropy
increases. Entropy is a measure of disorder, and life is perhaps
the most order-bound phenomena in the universe. If the second
law of thermodynamics holds true, how do we have life at all?
When we formulate the second law more carefully, it says
that in a closed system—one into which no energy is added—
entropy tends to increase.
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