This is because the human equation must include the food, wood, fossil fuels, atomic vision, and other energy-demanding/entropy-increasing process that underwrite and overrule the localized increases in order and systematization. Baking a cake provides a helpful analogy. A recipe describing specific ingredients in measured proportions is the blueprint for bringing a highly ordered product into the world. The end result is a nicely shaped, neatly iced, hopefully tasty creation. And yet, if we step back and look at the larger scene, we see dirty dishes, flour all over the counter, containers pulled from their ordered places on the shelves, chocolate covering children’s faces and clothing, not to mention all the fuel consumed by the baking process. It becomes obvious that the “orderliness” of the cake is accomplished at the expanse of a much greater increase in the total disorder of the household – not that it wasn’t worth the pleasure that it brought.
The outcome of this cascade of thermodynamic transformations has far-reaching metaphysical implications. According to theoretical physics, the entropy level of the macrocosm can be calculated as the ratio of photons (the massless particles of electromagnetic radiation) to nucleons (the heavy protons and neutrons comprising the nucleus of atoms). Entropy measures randomness and this is equivalent to evaluating all the possible configurations of a system. Entropy is highest where there is minimal constraint or definition. For example, a liquid shows high entropy because its atoms can arrange themselves in a great variety of ways, while a crystal shows lower entropy because its structure is rigidly and inflexibly defined. “The ratio of the density of photons [light] to the density of nucleons [matter] is a measure of entropy because photons constitute the most disordered states of thermal energy and nucleons constitute the most ordered state. Hence the relative abundance of these two extremes is a measure of the average entropy.”[30]
Since, “according to the Second Law of Thermodynamics, the total entropy of the universe increases continuously as time goes on,”[31] it follows, logically and inevitably, that there is a slow and continuous transformation of matter (nucleons) into light (photons). Thus, the undeniable “fate” of the universe is to become light-like. While this is a fanciful and somewhat unorthodox interpretation of physical facts, it is nonetheless entirely and rigorously consistent with the current assumptions of theoretical and experimental physics and cosmology.[32]
A functional equivalency is hereby established between the Judaic notion of Life Force and the scientific concept of thermodynamics. Both demonstrate a singular, omnipresent, intrinsic, unidirectional force that drives Creation forward, through time, to G‑d, or into light.
There is no separate vital energy peculiar to animate matter and thereby lacking in the mineral kingdom. Nor does a separate force specifically vitalize plants while another vivifies animals. Rather, the one Life Force, manifest a stone through the molecular organization of the mineral kingdom, expresses another dimension of itself through the “form” or molecular organization of plants and so forth. Although life forms exhibit diversity, the Life Force is singular and simple.
G‑d is one, and Divine Wisdom is that emanating aspect of G‑d which penetrates into and unifies all phenomena and realms… G‑d’s influence is manifest in every realm in a form that accords with a particular structure of the realm.[33]
Electricity provides a helpful analogy of a single type of energy with a manifold expression. The same electricity manifests light through a light bulb, music through a radio, heat through a stove and “intelligence” through a computer. As above, so below. Form is diverse, force is singular.
When the Life Force dwells within a particular creature or thing, it is called a soul: just as water confined to an indentation in the earth is called a lake or political power delegated to an administrative system is called a government.[34]
An essential duality exists in all creations: the dimension of substance/form and the dimension of soul.
Even in completely inanimate matter such as stones or earth or water, there is a soul and a spiritual life – that is the enclothing of the “letters of speech” of the Ten Utterances which give life and existence to inanimate matter that it might arise out of the naught and nothingness which preceded the six days of creation.[35]
The degree and depth to which a creation expresses this Life Force varies from realm to realm, from kingdom to kingdom, from individual to individual giving rise to different existential levels of “soul”.
