Order from disorder and Liars for Jebus

I was reading and commenting on a couple of Liars for Jebus (tm) blogs recently and among the grab bag of misrepresentations and distortions there were the usual comments about how evolution supposedly can't happen because somehow it is supposed to run counter to the second law of thermodynamics.

Now the usual rebuttal to this is to simply point out to IDiots that the second law only applies to closed systems and that it is not applicable therefore, in the simplistic way they use it, to looking at life on earth. Why? Well to put it at its simplest life on earth does not function within a closed system because the earth receives a constant supply of energy from the sun. There are, in addition plenty of examples of order arising from disorder. If you gave your wife a diamond engagement ring then the diamond itself is proof of this.

Over at Pharyngula P.J.Meyers has however posted about a specific mathematical approach to the issue of evolution and entropy which addresses a paper by the physicist Daniel Styer on "Entropy and Evolution". The paper makes quantitative estimates of how much entropy might be decreased by the process of evolution. Worth checking out. Any reader wishing to suggest that evolution is not possible due to the second law might care to enter into the debate over at P.J.Meyers blog.