Resumen:
Thermodynamics developed as a new branch of physics in the 19th century helping to go beyond a purely mechanistic understanding of nature. Among its founding fathers, it is William Thomson (Lord Kelvin) who offers a most promising perspective in order to highlight the influence of religious views in the improvement of science. In this article, I will focus on the controversy about the age of the Earthwhich confronted Kelvin with many geologists and defenders of the theory of evolutionand I will explain the connections between Kelvins credo and his scientific attack on uniformitarianism. Kelvins contribution, even if ultimately proven wrong, was right in spirit and served the transition from qualitative to quantitative geology.