Cosmology, creation, and the force of history

Abstract

The twentieth century saw a dramatic rise in scientific cosmology, with its roots in the great telescopic discoveries, in the realisation that geometry need not be Euclidean, and in Einstein's general theory of relativity. The most consequential early finding was that the universe of galaxies is expanding, so that extrapolating backwards in time brings us to a singularity that might somehow be described as ‘the origin of the universe’. This brief historical survey illustrates ways in which scientific cosmologists -I ignore the theologians who have commented on their works - have been tempted to make theological utterances. Does the singularity correspond to the moment of creation of the world by God, for example? Others have postulated alternative forms of a ‘creation of matter’, and again theological asides and retorts have often proved irresistible. For some, creation from nothing violates energy conservation and is therefore miraculous and therefore wrong. For others it is indeed miraculous, and therefore if it is right it requires God. Such cosmological questions are of a kind that were traditionally treated in philosophy, metaphysics, and theology. Not all modern attempts to answer them have been equally naive. Thus the cosmologist Georges Lema..tre, a Catholic priest, far from being attracted to his theory because it somehow proved the biblical story, was content to state that it was compatible with his belief. But strangely enough, some of those cosmologists who are most ready to make asides about God have been unbelievers.