The idea of this is that an omniscient being would know the best possible move in any configuration, and therefore might solve the puzzle in a strikingly more efficient way than an ordinary solver.
I don't know who originated the term but, if I remember correctly, it already appeared in Douglas Hofstadter's discussion of the Rubik's cube in the 1980s, so it was already current then. It was a big topic of Rubik's cube research until it was definitely solved (by the people whose work is linked above).
True! I guess in this case the Rubik's cube enthusiasts first coined the term, and the question was most discussed and studied in that community, so for them the intended reference was still clear even though the concept had also been applied to other puzzles.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God%27s_algorithm
The idea of this is that an omniscient being would know the best possible move in any configuration, and therefore might solve the puzzle in a strikingly more efficient way than an ordinary solver.
I don't know who originated the term but, if I remember correctly, it already appeared in Douglas Hofstadter's discussion of the Rubik's cube in the 1980s, so it was already current then. It was a big topic of Rubik's cube research until it was definitely solved (by the people whose work is linked above).