“Life reverses local entropy. Popularized by Isaac Asimov. In lay terms, life reverses the default trend toward ever-greater disorganization. Yeah, I know: Asimov must never have had children. Still, this one’s got a certain appeal. In contrast to, say, fire, which in its uncontrolled form is one of your more basic entropic phenomena, life is a creative force. Admittedly that idea isn’t much help in deciding what’s alive and what ain’t. The chemical reactions occurring for the universe’s first few billion years led inexorably to our teeming world, yet no one would describe them as life. But so what? The claim is that there is a powerful antientropic force in the universe (at a certain level of organization, it’s called natural selection), of which we are the latest and coolest manifestation. I’m not saying it’s as cuddly a thought as a benevolent Creator. But it beats waiting for things to just sputter out.” Earlier Quote
But fire IS a creative force, when there is a fire in a forest, it destroys all the underbrush right?..but then it leaves all the ashes for all the new life to spout from…the american indians (im not sure wich tribes) would burn the forests on a regular basis so that there wouldnt be any uncontrolled forest fires, also prolly because it made it much easier to walk around the forests…its just a case of: Form destrucion, comes creation…oh and dont comment on my grammar or spelling, as i already know its terrible…
Third, the early Americans didn’t do anything for “ecological reasons,” they did them out of necessity; frequent burns made for better gathering, for a number of reasons.
Oh, please! A guy can like a nice fire without it resulting in arson. :rolleyes: Some of us, especially BBQers and old Boy Scouts, are proud of the way we can light a good fire and some of us aren’t hardly crazy at all.
Based on the range of experiences I had as a Boy Scout (admittedly limited to the few local troops), this undermines your argument rather than supports it.
A buddy of mine’s troop prided itself on its “cooking fires” which were visible from five miles away. My troop never quite reached that, but not for lack of trying.
Just how small does it have to be to count as “Local” ?
I know of very few lifeforms who can cover the kind of area a forest fire can.
Along the lines others have mentioned, life can spring from all kinds of sources. Including death. Cadavers can have all sorts it life spring from them, just like a burnt forest, but they are most certainly dead. Unless you believe in vampires.
