Cosmology Is the New Mythology

[Ever on the prowl for modern wisdom, I came across the following article by Bruce Tallman. I hope you'll find it as interesting as I did. I see it as a companion post to my entry of Monday, July 25, "A Lot of 'Big Bang' For the Buck."]

Dear Friends,

On November 26 the London Free Press  published my article "Cosmology Is the New Mythology" with the same title I sent them! It's only 600 words, so why not print it off and, when you have 2 minutes, give it a quick read?

Blessings,
Bruce Tallman, Dr. Min.
Spiritual Director and Marriage Coach
"Helping people grow in faith and love since 1983"
website: www.brucetallman.com

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The mysteries science is coming across are getting bigger and bigger. On both the smallest and greatest scale, science is completely stumped. String theory, the most promising theory of physics of the past thirty years, since it was meant to explain everything, cannot be tested or proven. Basically, the theory is that underlying all particles discovered in cyclotrons like the Large Hadron Collider, there are infinitely tiny particles called "strings" whose vibrations at different rates produces all other particles. However to test string theory, according to Dr. David Goldberg, a leading astrophysicist, you would need a cyclotron the size of our solar system. It can’t be done.

Goldberg was speaking at Starfest, the annual gathering of about 800 professional and amateur astronomers north of Mount Forest which I’ve attended for the past four years. Another famous astronomer said telescopes are time machines. When we observe the Andromeda galaxy, we are seeing it as it was two million years ago, because it is two million light years away and it took that long for the light we are presently seeing to reach us.

If you looked back far enough, beyond the furthest galaxies, you would eventually see nothing in every direction except the cosmic fireball produced by the Big Bang, the explosion that began everything. There is no seeing beyond this. Scientists cannot say what caused the Big Bang. Physicists tell us that at the quantum, subatomic level the universe operates in unexplainable, irrational ways. No one knows how the same particle can be in two locations at once, how light can be both a wave and a particle at the same time, or how particles come out of a complete void.

Similarly, at the largest level, Goldberg told us that astrophysicists have "no clue what the universe is expanding into, why there is more matter than antimatter, or why there is anything at all." They also have no idea what "dark matter" and "dark energy" are, even though scientists know they make up 95% of the universe. Only 5% of the universe is visible.

At a previous Starfest an astronomer said "when scientists have no clue, they give things a name and that makes everyone feel better." For example, scientists have no idea why there was 380,000 years of complete darkness after the Big Bang, but they called the first appearance of photons "First Dawn" and that calmed everyone down.

Also, when they have no clue, they start theorizing, and if there is no way to test their pure theories they call it "cosmology." Cosmologists have theorized that the Big Bang was caused by "branes" colliding, but they have no way of testing this, and it just pushes the problem back another step. Where did the branes come from? A native Canadian who had become a professional astronomer told us that, according to aboriginal lore, the universe is floating on the back of a giant turtle. They also believed this in ancient China, which gives added weight to the argument. It seems to me to be as valid a myth as the theory of branes.

More science equals more mystery. Still more science equals still more mystery. Projecting down the road, further science will result in even more incomprehensible mysteries, ad infinitum.

Astronomy has completely blown apart many peoples’ former belief in God. They had to find a much bigger, more mysterious, more glorious God if they wanted to keep believing. So, believers are indebted to science for helping us to know God more fully.

However, since some scientists think all religion is mythology, and since their smallest and greatest theories can’t be proven, it would help if they realized cosmologists are really doing mythology under the guise of scientific explanation, and if some scientists say science proves there is no God, they are really doing theology disguised as scientific authority.

(Bruce Tallman is a London spiritual director. www.brucetallman.com ; btallman@rogers.com )

______________________

Alfred J. Garrotto is the author of the suspense novel,

The Saint of Florenville: A Love Story.

A Lot of "Big Bang" for the Buck

 

In my ongoing search for wisdom in our often unwise world, I came across Brian Thomas Swimme and Mary Evelyn Tucker's Journey of the Universe. The book is a companion to the authors' documentary and educational DVD project by the same title (see trailer below). What amazes me about their exploration of creation, from "big bang" to humans' headlong rape of natural resources, is the simplicity of the writing. This scientific-philosophical narrative is aimed at the lay reader for whom cosmology is mostly an off-the-radar area of awareness.

I was moved by the authors' conviction that the universe is alive, not inert, and that it is purposefully self-organizing,  rather than randomly. They present us as unlucky heirs of a totally opposite, materialist mind-set that began in the 16th and 17th centuries. Indoctrinated as we are today in a static cosmology, most of humanity today views planet Earth as our toy to exploit without regard for  consequences to ourselves and future generations.

Journey of the Universe is not a religious book. For example, it does not address the question of a "prime mover." Yet, it is a sacred book in the sense that the authors treat their subject, the universe, with utmost reverence. They are critical of current trends at play in human history, but offer hope for the future of all who carry "big bang" DNA. 

Tucker and Swimme remind us that the dawn of human intelligence allowed the universe to reflect upon itself for the first time. They go on to offer us three guides that we can securely rely on as we move forward into the universe's future: 

(1) Stars from which the elements of our bodies are made--"Wonder is a gateway through which the universe floods in and takes residence within us." 

(2) The ocean which, given time, will "dissolve things into itself"--Like the seas, we have the possibility of becoming empathetic beings, capable of flowing into and becoming one with the feelings of any being. 

(3) What we make with our hands--"Our destiny is woven into the mysteries of creativity and time."

In short, Swimme and Tucker offer a big picture of the universe and our place in its existence and progress. They call us to see beyond the social, political, and religious chaos and crises of the moment. They invite us to trust, as they do, that we are part of something wonderful--though as yet unseen--that will certainly emerge from the darkness. "If the creative energies in the heart of the universe succeeded so brilliantly in the past, we have reason to hope that such creativity will inspire us and guide us into the future."

As I bask in the good vibes of reading Journey of the Universe, a line from a Christian hymn plays at my memory: "This is holy ground. We're standing on holy ground."