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R. Barrett and P. P. Delsanto
10.2 The Very Beginning
In Chap. 2, we explored the possible origins of human intelligence and the
evolution of logic. As these aptitudes evolved, early humans applied their new
skills to make sense of the world in which they lived. Their curiosity extended
to the search for an explanation of the origin of the universe, a study now
known as cosmogony. They also pondered about their own origin, as well as
making hypotheses for what might lay ahead. Thus were born a variety of
religions in the different centres of human population.
Ancient mythology is a fascinating subject in its own right. However, what
interests us here is the first appearance of ideas that are still part of modern
cosmology. The concept of time was personified in pre-Socratic philosophy
in the figure of Chronos, or Father Time, wielding his harvesting scythe, and
wreaking havoc on all about. Was this a forerunner of the arrow of time and
the Second Law of Thermodynamics (see Chap. 2), which states that the
world moves from a state of order to disorder? The Second Law can perhaps
also be recognised in Greek poet Hesiod’s five ages of the world, going from
the best (golden) to the worst (iron), and in the four epochs of the great
Indian texts, Vedas and Puranas.
In both the Chinese and the Hindu traditions, the evolution of the
universe is conceived as a cyclic process, with the Hindu cosmology even
quantifying the duration of each cycle in terms of billions of years. At the
end of each cycle the universe is destroyed by fire, and then after an interlude, it is created again. As we shall see, this cyclic nature appears also in some
modern conjectures about the cosmos, extending Einstein’s General Theory
of Relativity beyond the initial (Big Bang) and possibly final singularity (Big
Crunch).
Interesting as these ancient insights are, we cannot attach too much significance to them. There are a limited number of options for the evolution of the
universe: static, cyclic, expanding and shrinking, so it is not surprising that
primordial mythologies have suggested some of them. The important thing
is that humans, so early in their history, pursued an explanation of the nature
of their world.
The birth of what we regard as modern cosmogony had to await accurate
observations of the heavens. These suggested that the earth was a sphere, and
that the skies revolved around it diurnally. The use of the plural here is necessary because the sun and the moon revolved on a different layer (sky) from
the stars. In addition, the observations also revealed a small number (five) of
wandering stars, or planets.
R. Barrett and P. P. Delsanto
10.2 The Very Beginning
In Chap. 2, we explored the possible origins of human intelligence and the
evolution of logic. As these aptitudes evolved, early humans applied their new
skills to make sense of the world in which they lived. Their curiosity extended
to the search for an explanation of the origin of the universe, a study now
known as cosmogony. They also pondered about their own origin, as well as
making hypotheses for what might lay ahead. Thus were born a variety of
religions in the different centres of human population.
Ancient mythology is a fascinating subject in its own right. However, what
interests us here is the first appearance of ideas that are still part of modern
cosmology. The concept of time was personified in pre-Socratic philosophy
in the figure of Chronos, or Father Time, wielding his harvesting scythe, and
wreaking havoc on all about. Was this a forerunner of the arrow of time and
the Second Law of Thermodynamics (see Chap. 2), which states that the
world moves from a state of order to disorder? The Second Law can perhaps
also be recognised in Greek poet Hesiod’s five ages of the world, going from
the best (golden) to the worst (iron), and in the four epochs of the great
Indian texts, Vedas and Puranas.
In both the Chinese and the Hindu traditions, the evolution of the
universe is conceived as a cyclic process, with the Hindu cosmology even
quantifying the duration of each cycle in terms of billions of years. At the
end of each cycle the universe is destroyed by fire, and then after an interlude, it is created again. As we shall see, this cyclic nature appears also in some
modern conjectures about the cosmos, extending Einstein’s General Theory
of Relativity beyond the initial (Big Bang) and possibly final singularity (Big
Crunch).
Interesting as these ancient insights are, we cannot attach too much significance to them. There are a limited number of options for the evolution of the
universe: static, cyclic, expanding and shrinking, so it is not surprising that
primordial mythologies have suggested some of them. The important thing
is that humans, so early in their history, pursued an explanation of the nature
of their world.
The birth of what we regard as modern cosmogony had to await accurate
observations of the heavens. These suggested that the earth was a sphere, and
that the skies revolved around it diurnally. The use of the plural here is necessary because the sun and the moon revolved on a different layer (sky) from
the stars. In addition, the observations also revealed a small number (five) of
wandering stars, or planets.