ALAYMAN said:
Joseph, how does such philosophical sophistry ("something from nothing") jive with the first law of thermodynamics (matter can be neither creation nor destroyed)?
Ask a physicist. You left out part. The idea is that in a closed system, the amount of energy remains constant. The energy can change forms; but the total amount remains the same. None can be added; and none can be subtracted.
The second law then goes on to say that with every reaction in a closed system, part of the matter is released into the system as heat; and over time, the amount of heat (entropy) increases.
It is important to note, however, that there really is no such thing as a "law" of thermodynamics. Laws are arbitrary things, given by decree. The so-called "laws of physics," et al, are no more than assumptions upon which physicists build their theories. The laws have never been proved to be true. The "laws" are not really "laws."
Being educated in math and physics, as you claim to be, you are well aware than it is only in mathematics where a theorem can be proven. But even then, the proof must begin with some sort of assumption -- that is, either a previously proven theorem, or a statement, which is arbitrarily accepted as true without proof. Physics theories, on the other hand, can never be proven in the same sense that math theorems can.