What I call the 'second kind' of entropy refers to the natural tendency to DISORDER, requiring energy input to prevent it. Why do most living organisms require nutrients, if not to prevent becoming disordered dust?
[**The 'first kind' of entropy declares that it is impossible to enjoy for productive work all the energy derived from a given source. A classical example is the internal combustion engine, which must lose a percentage of the energy produced by gasoline reacting with air's oxygen, in the form of HOT gases expelled through the exhaust ('thermos' means HEAT). {ADDENDUM 1999: it also means ENERGY, so that "thermodynamics" actually means "energydynamics."}**]
The subject of the present exposition has to do with Creation, God, Big Bang, Light and especially ORDER. I will show that the Big Bang was a tremendous 'expansion' (no connection with the 'Inflation' nonsense), to differentiate it from 'explosion,' a term which brings to mind the idea of HEAT and of the resulting fire and light. Why so? Because there was NO entropy: there was no loss of the Primal Energy, all of which created HYDROGEN. Indeed, what kind of matter was there to become heated? (Just introduce your hand into a hot oven and feel the warmth of the air. But do not touch its wall or any other solid!) This has been the ONLY instance of absolute absence of entropy. I postulate:
The big bang was a cold and dark event.
Shortly afterwards, as is accepted, the gravity force (itself created at that very moment) fused minuscule amounts of hydrogen into helium at the core of enormous hydrogen clouds; at that precise moment appeared the first --'classical'-- entropy, meaning that not all the hydrogen could be utilized in this fusion process; the small remaining portion was converted into HEAT and the resultant LIGHT. Why so? Because the enormous amount of hydrogen present in the cloud could now absorb the enormous heat at its core, which transformed into light: These are the stars.
One can only marvel that in Genesis, God is described as initially creating ORDER and only later creating LIGHT. In fact, light is a Concrete entity (photons) resulting from ORDER, which in turn is an Abstraction, an Idea, in Plato's sense.
Indeed, what's the sense of creating light only to see chaos?
ADDENDUM (1999): This essay was written almost three years ago. By now I have better notions on the subject. Mainly, I now avoid talking about disorder, since this is a judgmental concept, considering correct to use instead the term equilibrium, which is an absolute, defined by mathematical formulas, being therefore a precise physical, concept.
ADDENDUM 2: By the same token, order is also an anthropomorphic concept; this means that it is NOT a Platonic Idea, as I wrote above. So, if I just yesterday wrote that disorder is the ultimate equilibrium, when change ceases to occur, then what is order? I realize now that order is a state of disequilibrium.
ADDENDUM 3 (Dec 31 1999): Yet the said above is clearly understood when referring to living organisms. Disorder in nonbiological systems is of a different kind, and is considered as a manifestation of CHAOS.
This entropy is known as the Second Law of Thermodynamics, considered also to be The Supreme Law of Physics, i.e., of the Universe.
Then, is any disequilibrium a manifestation of 'order'? Certainly not: it should be clear that it is a situation of disequilibrium maintained under control, by mechanisms in charge of what is called homeostasis. Homeostasis allows for a limited leeway of change. Thus, disorder is a state of invariable equilibrium, and order is a state of disequilibrium under homeostatic control.
Chaos is a situation of 'excessive' disequilibrium, where 'excess' is defined relative to a customary state of long-lasting disequilibrium. Order, in such systems, is a return to a new state of long-lasting 'mild' disequilibrium.
Compare a short-term chaotic state of tormentous weather with the centuries-long chaos caused by the meteorite falling in Yucatan. That sort of chaos is the archetypical one in Genesis and other myths of creation.