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History of Science & Epistemology

Cosmogenesis (3) : Time and Creation

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Sequel of the preceding post Cosmogenesis (2) : Chaos and Metamorphosis

Time and Creation

In any discussion of the creation of the world the paradoxical and complex question of temporality inevitably arises. If the Creation is regarded as an event, it must have taken place at some point in time, on a specific date. If time is regarded as a linear phenomenon, as it is in the Western world, this necessarily raises the problem whether anything existed before the Creation and, if so, what. But if time itself existed before the Creation, it cannot be part of the world as we know it – something which is difficult to imagine…

A Treatise on the Hexameron. St Ambrose (c. 339-394), who was bishop of Milan, was a believer in "Platonic Christianity" and one of the first Church Fathers, along with Origen and St Basil, to deliver sermons on the six days of the Creation, which he collected into a treatise. His Hexameron (shown here in an 11th century manuscript copy) is more than an exegesis; it is a veritable encyclopaedia anticipating those of the Middle Ages: the third book is concerned with plants, the fifth with birds and fish, and the second part of the sixth book with the anatomy of the human body. Paris, BNF, Manuscripts, Lat. 1720.
A Treatise on the Hexameron. St Ambrose (c. 339-394), who was bishop of Milan, was a believer in “Platonic Christianity” and one of the first Church Fathers, along with Origen and St Basil, to deliver sermons on the six days of the Creation, which he collected into a treatise. His Hexameron (shown here in an 11th century manuscript copy) is more than an exegesis; it is a veritable encyclopaedia anticipating those of the Middle Ages: the third book is concerned with plants, the fifth with birds and fish, and the second part of the sixth book with the anatomy of the human body.
Paris, BNF, Manuscripts, Lat. 1720.

This paradox was pondered by Medieval scholars, who were forced to conclude that the world and time were created simultaneously. In the fourth century the Bishop of Milan, St Ambrose, wrote in his Hexameron: “In the beginning of time, therefore, God created heaven and earth. Time proceeds from this world, not before the world.”[1]. In the early 13th century the French philosopher and theologian William of Auvergne (also known as William of Paris) pursued a similar line of reasoning in his thinking about time: “Just as there is nothing beyond or outside the World, since it contains and includes all things, so there is nothing before or preceding time, which began with the creation of the World, since it contains all the periods of which it is comprised. This poses the question: What was before the beginning of time? or, since the word ‘before’ implies the existence of time, In the time preceding the beginning of time, did anything exist?”[2]

The same questions continue to be asked today, and scientists who are asked to give public lectures on big bang theory and the expansion of the universe commonly face two kinds of questions: “What was there before the big bang?” and “What is there for the universe to expand into?” – in other words “Did time exist before time began?” and “Is there space beyond the limit of space?” The solution of modern physics to these paradoxes is that the universe consists of space-time and therefore the creation of the world cannot be regarded as a temporal phenomenon. Continue reading →

Essays, History of Science & Epistemology, Literature

Cosmogenesis (1) : From Myth to Myth

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Introduction

Every society has a story, rooted in its most ancient traditions, of how the earth and sky originated. Most of these stories attribute the origin of all things to a Creator -whether god, element or idea.

In the Western world all discussions of the origin of the world were dominated until the 18th century by the story of Genesis, which describes the Creation as an ordered process that took seven days. The development of mechanistic theories in the 18th century meant that the idea of an organized Creation gave way to the concept of evolution, and in the 19th century astrophysicists discovered that stars had their origin in clouds of gas. Big bang theory, conceived at the beginning of the 20th century, was subsequently developed into a more or less complete account of the history of the cosmos, from the birth of space, time and matter out of the quantum vacuum until the emergence of life.

Today sophisticated telescopes show us how the first galaxies were formed, how clouds of hydrogen gave birth to stars and how the planets emerged from swirling dust. We now know that creation is still going on in our universe but the origin of life remains an enigma. How did life forms appear? The universe’s best kept secret continues to baffle scientists.

From Myth to Myth

What are the origins of the universe, of the sky, of the earth, of life, of man? These questions have given rise to many different myths and legends and continue to be the subject of intensive research by astrophysicists, biologists and anthropologists. What were once fanciful stories are now scientific models but, whatever form they take, ideas about the origins of the universe both reflect and enrich the imagination of the people who generate them. Every society has developed its own stories to explain the creation of the world; most of them are ancient myths rooted in religion.

Whereas in monotheistic religions God is believed to have existed before the Creation, in most other kinds of religion the gods themselves are thought to originate from a creative element such as Desire, the Tree of the Universe, the Mundane Egg, Water, Chaos or the Void.

Babylonian Gods. An inscription on the back of this stone carving tells us that it was a gift from the Kassite king Melishishu II to his son. The picture shows the symbols representing the gods carved on the front. On the right the principal deities -Anu, god of the sky, and Enlil, god of the atmosphere - are each shown as a sort of tiara standing on a plinth. Next a ram's head above a creature half-goat half-fish represents Ea, god of the Waters of the Abyss. The symbol on the left might be for the goddess Ninhursag. Above these are the three celestial divinities: a crescent for Sin, god of the moon, a star for Ishatar and an image of the sun for Shamash. Stone from Kassite era (1202-1188 BC). Paris, Louvre.
Babylonian Gods. An inscription on the back of this stone carving tells us that it was a gift from the Kassite king Melishishu II to his son. The picture shows the symbols representing the gods carved on the front. On the right the principal deities -Anu, god of the sky, and Enlil, god of the atmosphere – are each shown as a sort of tiara standing on a plinth. Next a ram’s head above a creature half-goat half-fish represents Ea, god of the Waters of the Abyss. The symbol on the left might be for the goddess Ninhursag. Above these are the three celestial divinities: a crescent for Sin, god of the moon, a star for Ishatar and an image of the sun for Shamash.
Stone from Kassite era (1202-1188 BC). Paris, Louvre.
The Chinese giant Pangu
The Chinese giant Pangu

Ideas like these appear in the Rig-veda, one of the four sacred books of the Brahmins and the oldest surviving written record of Indian culture which were compiled between 2000 and 1500 BC. The Tree of the Universe, symbol of the outward growth of the world and of its organic unity, is mentioned in ancient Indian legends as well as in those of the Babylonians and Scandinavians (who call it Yggdrasil). The anthropomorphic symbol of Desire was invoked by the Phoenicians and by the Maoris of New Zealand. The Mundane Egg, from which the Hindu Prajapatis (lords of all living things) emerged, also gave birth to the gods Ogo and Nommo, worshipped by the Dogon of Mali, and the Chinese giant Pan Gu as well as constituting the celestial vault in the legend of Orpheus.

Birth of Gods and Cosmic Egg according to the Upanishad
Birth of Gods and Cosmic Egg according to the Upanishad

A belief in some such primordial element, of which there are traces in every culture, underlies man’s thinking about the history of the cosmos like a primitive universal symbol buried in the collective subconscious. This may explain the vague links which can always be discerned between this or that creation myth and modern scientific descriptions of the origin of the universe – for example, big bang theory. There is therefore nothing mysterious or surprising about these correspondences other than that certain ways of thinking about the world should be so ingrained in the human mind. Continue reading →