Why is it that evolutionists try to complicate something that is so simple?
Because it's
not as simple as you believe it to be. Although, I'd agree that the 2LoT is a pretty simple concept, you're just a few puzzle pieces short of seeing the picture.
In teh example of the fuel vs exhaust, while some of that exhaust can potentially be used by plants to make more of that fuel (and that's oversimplified to a degree that makes me cringe), the actual
energy content of the exhaust is lower than that of the fuel. The plants can only use the exhaust mass to make more fuel
with the additional input of energy from the sun. It's the external energy source provided by the sun that allows the entropy of the plants to decrease.
It's all about potential energy - like when you hold a rock above the ground. The rock has potential energy, and if dropped it will perform work. But once it's at rest on the ground, its potential energy content is decreased, meaning the entropy of the rock-ground system is increased. The only way for the rock to regain potential energy (and thus decrease entropy) is for an external energy source to provide that energy - typically in the form of you picking up the rock again.
It's a very simple concept, but energy doesn't just flow around in an infinite circle. Whenever work is performed, energy is "lost" as heat. It doesn't disappear (you cannot destroy energy), but it's no longer usable for performing work, meaning entropy is increased. The only way to decrease entropy is through an external energy source. In the case of teh Earth and life, this external energy source is the sun.
When Son Goku replied to you regarding perpetual motion machines (where work is performed infinitely in a closed system, a violation of thermodynamics), he was referring to your example of fuel exhaust being used for the creation of new fuel. If the system is closed, that would be impossible - without the input of new energy from the sun, the cycle of exhaust > plant > fuel > exhaust is a perpetual energy machine, and a violation of thermodynamics.
Does that help at all?
Edited by Rahvin, : No reason given.