Robert E. Ulanowicz is a theoretical ecologist and philosopher, a professor of theoretical ecology at the University of Maryland until 2008, and now is in the Department of Biology at the University of Florida.

In his Sophia article, Process Ecology: Making Room for Creation, he writes that creationism is "a core phenomenon of Process Ecology that allows for free will and Divine intervention," that no longer is ‘heat death’ the inevitable and only endpoint of the cosmos, and that the course of the universe may include Teilhard de Chardin’s teleological ‘Omega Point.’

The laws of physics, because they are cast in terms of homogeneous variables, fall short of determining outcomes in heterogeneous biological systems that are capable of an immense number of combinatoric changes. The universal laws are not violated and they continue to constrain, but specification of results is accomplished instead by stable configurations of processes that develop in a nonrandom, but indeterminate manner. The indeterminacy of physical laws puts an end to Deist speculations and necessitates an alternative to the mechanicalreductionistic metaphor for nature. An antithetical Heraclitan metaphysics, called ‘Process Ecology,’ entails a dialectic between centripetal creation and centrifugal decay in which nature, humanity and the Divine can all potentially participate. The dialectic can be quantified and tracked using information measures applied to networks of processes to allow for the statement and testing of falsifiable hypotheses. Creation no longer appears as an emergent enigma, but rather as a core phenomenon of Process Ecology that allows for free will, Divine intervention, intercessory prayer and a necessary tolerance for petty evil. No longer is ‘heat death’ the inevitable and only endpoint of the cosmos. Rather, the course of the universe may include as well the production of ‘perpetual harmonies’ akin to Teilhard’s ‘Omega Point.’

In the dialogue between science and religion many exchanges between physicists and theologians are aimed at papering over the yawning gap between their respective metaphysics, as though it does not exist. While biologists do enter the conversation, most do so as physicalists, believing that all sciences are derivative of physics. Physicists, of course, are delighted to encourage this belief—witness the opinion shared by Nobel Laureates Murray Gell-Mann, Stephen Weinberg, and David Gross, who maintain that all causality originates from below and that there is nothing ‘down there’ but the laws of physics.

Such nihilism is the trademark of those who deny the authenticity of anything theological. Encouraged by the absence of any violations of the four force laws of physics (strong and weak nuclear forces, electromagnetism and gravity), Carl Sagan and Hawking (1988) sought to seize the entire domain of metaphysics with their belief that ‘There is nothing left for a Creator to do.’ So cowed are many believers by the power of physics and the other sciences that even a believer like Hefner (2000) came to doubt that miracles can happen, lamenting that God ‘just doesn’t have enough “wiggle room”.’ Many who still pray have abandoned intercessory prayer in the Neo-Deist belief that God cannot act in a world totally ruled by the laws of science. Truly, a metaphysical chasm persists between physics and theology.

In an amazon review of Ulanowicz's latest book, The First Incarnation:Hope in Reality , we find the book

stands alone in that it introduces theoretical ecosystems' results to enrich the dialogue between science and religion. In this work, Ulanowicz deconstructs the prevailing view among many scientists that all causality issues from below via the universal force laws of physics at micro-scales and propagates up the hierarchy of life. Though these laws are not violated, they lose their powers to determine outcomes at larger scales and can only constrain against impossible outcomes. Agency must be added to the foundations of evolutionary theory, and this reformation provides rationale for believers to regard agency as an action of a Creator.