RE: Is biological evolution a ball rolling up a hill all by itself?
pointing to a subsystem as evidence for the dynamic that caused the system, there is no less veracity in pointing to the system as evidence for the dynamic that caused the super-system. That is to say, your notion that eating validates evolution is logically equivalent to the notion that man validates God.
I suspect you missed the point of the example.
This was the point.
There is a way however for entropy to decrease and for a system to become more complex. For this to occur the system needs to be an open system. Energy needs to be able to flow into and out of the system, work also need to be done within the system. Life makes use of many open systems, that all do work, they are all around us.
We can observe this in something we do everyday, when we eat.
Its not evidence, just a process, that is more familiar, that operates on similar principles of thermodynamics.
So the universe is an open system then? Surely an open system cannot have a beginning? Cannot be closed one end and open the other. Infinity is not uni-directional. So are you saying there was not a Big Bang that started the ball rolling uphill? Just asking?