The Rebirth of Nature: The Greening of Science and God by Rupert Sheldrake

Author:Rupert Sheldrake [Sheldrake, Rupert]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Inner Traditions Bear & Company
Published: 1994-04-01T00:00:00+00:00

Cosmic Evolution

The newborn universe was filled with energy hurtling outward. As the cosmos grew and cooled, first subatomic particles, then atoms, galaxies, stars, molecules, crystals, planets, and biological life developed within it. We live in a world that was born some fifteen billion years ago, a world that has always been growing and is still growing today. On this planet, life has been developing for over three billion years in an evolutionary process that continues in ourselves. The development of science is part of this very process.

This is the modern creation story. The Big Bang is like the primal orgasm, the generative moment. Or it is like the breaking open of the cosmic egg.2 The cosmos is like a growing organism, forming new structures within itself as it develops. Part of the intuitive appeal of this story is that it tells us that everything is related. Everything has come from a common source: all galaxies, stars, and planets; all atoms, molecules, and crystals; all microbes, plants, and animals; all people on this planet. We ourselves are related more or less closely to everyone else, to all living organisms, and ultimately to everything that is or that ever has been. One of the great themes of traditional creation myths is the division of the primal unity into many parts, the emergence of the many from the one. The modern theory of cosmic evolution fulfills this mythic role.

Another of the intuitive attractions of the modern story is its affirmation of creativity in the universe, in life, and in humanity. The creative process not only occurred long ago in the mythic time of origins; it has been going on ever since and is still going on today. This vision reinforces our modern fascination with innovation, change, and development; we can experience human creativity as part of this cosmic creative process.

The modern creation story undoubtedly reflects our cultural preoccupations, but it is difficult to know to what extent it involves projecting them onto the world around us. In the Judeo-Christian myth of history, the end (the new creation) mirrors the beginning (the first creation). For decades, we feared that humanity and much of life on this planet would be destroyed by an apocalyptic nuclear war. It was fitting that we should have a model of cosmic history in which the beginning in a vast explosion mirrored our dread of our end in a nuclear holocaust.

Moreover, in the 1960s, the idea that the universe would go on expanding forever was in gratifying harmony with the idea that the world economy would keep growing indefinitely. Now we have more doubts, and sure enough, unknown amounts of dark matter now loom beneath the surface of the visible universe threatening to end the cosmic expansion.

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