In religious thermodynamics, God or a deity, typically defined as the supernatural creator and overseer of the universe, is a theory often found to have a thermodynamic interpretation. Typical examples include: that god formulated the laws of thermodynamics, that god set the universe, now operating according to scientific laws, in motion in the act of creation, or that god is an organizing force opposite to that of disordering force of negentropy, or that living human existence is under the operation of thermodynamical laws, but that the spiritual realm or afterlife is under god's operation, among others.

Theories
In the 1939 book The Philosophy of Power, author Donald Murray devoted a two-page section to the subject of “God and Thermodynamics” outlining views on a relation between god and the steam engine. [1]

In 1999, author Holmes Rolston stated that: “one can posit god as a countercurrent to entropy, a sort of biogravity that lures life upward.” [2]

In 2007, Indian chemical engineer DMR Sekhar postulated a theory of "genopsych" (genetics+psychology), which he conceived as "an extensive property running or operating counter to entropy" that (a) gives directionality to the process of evolution, (b) causes non-random variations in the genome, indicating creation of new information, (c) is the basis of native intelligence of plants and microorganisms, and (d) is god or a part of God inside of humans that has evolved people to their present form. [3] Sekhar's theory was an effort to find unification between genetics, evolution, thermodynamics, the Bhagavat Gita, and the Holy Bible.

In the 2008 book Reinventing the Sacred, American biochemist Stuart Kauffman argues that the Abrahamic idea of god as a supernatural creator needs to be reinterpreted as a natural creativity in the universe, and does this using a logic of thermodynamic work cycles. [4]

Entropological proof

See main: Entropological proof

Another religious thermodynamic postulate is that God created the low-entropy singularity or grandly-unified mass of energy that initiated the universe at the act of the Big Bang. [5] This conception derives from what has been called the “entropological proof” for the existence of god. [6] This proof reasons, according to English statistical thermodynamicist Peter Landsberg, that: [6]

(a) the universe is an isolated system.
(b) that, by experimental definition, isolated systems reach internal thermal equilibrium given time, after which fluctuations about this equilibrium state can take place.
(c) the universe is presently in a far-from-equilibrium state.
(d) if the universe is in a far-from-equilibrium state, it must have had a finite age and hence a beginning.
(e) this beginning must be a state of minimum entropy at which the cosmos was born.
(f) this original state was brought about by God, who also created the initial values of parameters such as initial internal energy, matter, entropy, etc., such that the initial universe was wound up, i.e. “the spring was set”, and the universe is now running down to an eventual heat death.

One of the obvious contradictions in this proof is that point (c) contradicts point (a). In other words, far-from-equilibrium systems, such as Benard cells, can only maintain such a state if they are continuously being driven by an external flux of energy or matter, and as such are open and cannot be isolated.

Second law argument
One of the more classic connections often made between god and thermodynamics is the second law argument. This argument loosely states that because the “commonly known” version of the second law states that the universe tends towards disorder or is running down, and that because, as evolution as shown, life is running upward towards more ordered states, that these two processes can only be reconciled if God has a hand in it. [7]

Free energy source
A newer interpretation of God is that god is the original source of the free energy (chemical, gravitational, etc.), that is driving the universe. In short, it is often reasoned that at the start of the Big Bang the early universe was at thermodynamic equilibrium, but that as it expanded and cooled its symmetry was broken creating free energy gradients. To elaborate on this, in 2004 American-born English historian David Christian asks: “did the universe start out with a stock of free energy on which all ordered entities have drawn ever since? If so, where did that energy capital come from and how long will it be before it runs out (heat death)?” He continues, in reference to a type of pseudo-deity efforts:

“Something (or someone?) must have done some heavy lifting in the early days of the universe to create the gradients and differences that create and sustain the patterns we see around us … if it was not a creator god who did this, then how was it done?”

He concludes “the ultimate source of free energy (and therefore order) remains one of the great puzzles of modern cosmology, because, as far as we can tell, the early universe was remarkably homogeneous.” [8]

Discusses Einstein's views on god, atheism, theism, energy, matter, life after death, etc.

Einstein
In 1954, German-born American physicist Albert Einstein sent a letter to Jewish philosopher Eric Gutkind in which he stated that “the word of God is nothing more than an expression of human weakness; described the Bible as “pretty childish” ; and stated that “all religions are incarnations of the most childish superstitions”. The famous letter sold in 2008 for $440,000 at an auction in London. [9]

References
1. Murray, Donald. (1939). The Philosophy of Power: First Principles, (sections: “Laws of Thermodynamics”, “Active Energy, pgs 17-38, God and Thermodynamics, pgs. 67-68). Williams and Norgate, Ltd.
2. Rolston, Holmes. (1999). Genes, Genesis, and God: Values and Their Origins in Natural and Human History, (pg. 364). Cambridge University Press.
3. (a) Sekhar, DMR. (2007). "On the Incompatibilities of the Second Law of Thermodynamics, Primary Instincts, Natural Selection, and the Properties of DNA." (8-pages). Submitted as article proposal to the Journal of Human Thermodynamics.
(b) Sekhar, DMR. (2007). "Genopsych and the God", Blog, July, 16.
(c) Sekhar, DMR. (2007). “Genopsych: Some aspects on Philosophy”, Dmrsekhar Blogs, Sulekha.com, July 26.
4. Kauffman, Stuart. (2008). Reinventing the Sacred: A New View of Science, Reason, and Religion. Basic Books.
5. Edwards, Rem B. (2001). What Caused the Big Bang, (pg. 283). Rodopi.
6. Landsberg, Peter T. (1999). Seeking Ultimates: An Intuitive Guide to Physics, (pgs. 231-32). CRC Press.
7. Sagan, Carl, and Druyan Ann. (2006). The Varieties of Scientific Experience, (pg. 157). Penguin Group.
8. Christian, David. (2004). Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History (pg. 507). University of California Press.
9. (a) Overbye, Dennis. (2008). “Einstein Letter on God Sells for $404,000”, NY Times, May 17.
(b) Einstein: Letter to Eric Gutkind (partial) (translation) – RelativityBook.com.
(a) Fackenheim, Emil L. (1952). “Review: Choose Life: the Biblical Call to Revolt by Eric Gutkind” (abstract), Commentary Magazine, Aug.

Further reading
● Miller, Jeff. (2007). “God and the Laws of Thermodynamics: A Mechanical Engineer’s Perspective”, Apologetics Press, April, 4: 25-31.

External links
● The existence of god and the second law (6 articles) – Helium.com.
● God – Wikipedia.