Real science applies in principle to things which we can examine under laboratory conditions. Anything we can’t get our hands on in time or in space is necessarily the subject of speculation. Despite this, an entire mythological cosmology has become associated with “science”. This mythology borrows extensively from mythological and storytelling traditions. I will summarise it here and then contrast it with the Christian cosmology in later posts:

Matter and energy can neither be created nor destroyed, except in one particular instant when all the matter and energy in the universe came into being (age of miracles/profane age). This exploded, but whereas most explosions lead to chaos, this one led to stars, planets and galaxies through the agency of gravity, a magical force instantaneously attracting everything in the universe to everything else.

On one of these planets that we know about, through some infinitesimally small chance, some self-replicating protein or nucleic acid or whatever came into existence and life was born. Life developed theoretically randomly, but in practice made inexorable progress to more complex forms. For a time, huge reptilian monsters ruled the earth, but through cunning and grit, first mammals generally and then from mammals humans took over from their larger opponents (underdog, ugly duckling).

Humans continued to progress, becoming more self-aware, eschewing the primitive gods of their own creation, inventing things and eventually becoming modern scientific people. So it looks like we are headed for an awesome future.

But not so fast. In the final analysis we are only aggregations of molecules bumping into each other in deterministic billiard ball fashion merely creating the illusion of consciousness. In time we won’t even get that. Our sun will burn out. All usable energy in the universe will become exhausted and result in “heat death”. All was futile and in the blink of a cosmological eye we have come from nothing and will return to nothing. (Ragnarök in Norse mythology).