Ramblings - First published November 2021
Ramblings from David
November 2021
Standing in the light of the Sun, watching and enjoying the tones shifting in the colours of the forest, as the low autumn Sun moves gently towards the horizon, it’s easy to become transfixed; drawn towards the wonders of creation. Such a simple moment, that would not have been possible if it were not for the whole of existence playing out as it has.
‘Stories of creation’ are common throughout the whole history of humanity. Although in the modern day, science strikes a different tone in its assessment of the origins of the universe, it would be wrong of the science community not to accept that they are attempting to tell the same story that has been passed on through the mists of time.
Modern science claims, justifiably, to have collated evidence to support their theories, as opposed to the stories and myths, that many modern investigations would label as fanciful. It is however quite reasonable to point out that while the source of many of the myths may appear to be somewhat unscientific, many of the stories from the past are actually supported by fundamental aspects of the modern cutting edge science.
It is quite extraordinary how the modern day descriptions of cosmologists and space scientists, concerning the origins of the universe, can be interchanged with words taken from the ancient oral traditions of some countries and written religious texts. Bygone cultures, creating stories from what they have seen, into forms that make sense to the world they know around them; in many ways telling such a similar story to the modern day science, that there appears to be a knowledge from a place that is more than just that of a pure intellectual enquiry in isolation. Translating a small aspect of an existential wisdom that falls outside the human timescale of experience, as we understand it, but is part of existence.
To illustrate this, the story below combines elements of the old and the new taken from different sources. How easily can you separate the paragraphs taken from ancient stories, as opposed to the modern scientific theory?
1. In the beginning there was a formless mist which became known as Ylem.
2. The earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep.
3. Niflheim was the dark world, where dark rivers cut through the mist. Niflheim was colder than cold, the murky mist that cloaked everything hung heavily.
4. The Universe was dark, but it was not empty. Something was lurking in the void, stretching out tendrils. The cosmic web grew to become a vast structure, criss-crossing the entire Universe.
5. Formed by interlocking filaments of dark matter, it was in the dark heart of the cosmic web that gravity began to sculpt the early universe. The universe was approaching a turning point, hydrogen and helium poured into the regions where the filaments crossed, gathering into ever denser clouds. Gravity asserted its grip and the clouds of gas began to collapse, becoming denser and denser. And in the densest regions, the gas became so hot that nuclear fusion reactions began and out of the maelstrom…
6. God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light.
7. ...drawing together the two simplest elements – hydrogen and helium. Hydrogen gas clings to the filaments of the web, attracted there by the gravitational pull of the dark matter. And where those filaments cross, the gas can become dense enough to collapse under its own gravity... It was in the places where these filaments met, the intersections, that the first stars, were born. Fierce blue giants which first lit up the universe.
8. Muspell was fire. Everything there glowed and burned with the roar of the blacksmiths fire. There was no solid earth. In Muspell, at the edge of the flame, where the mist burns into light, stood Surtr, who existed before the Gods. He stands there now. He holds a flaming sword, and the bubbling lava and the freezing mists are as one to him.
9. And God said “Let the earth bring forth all kinds of living creatures, cattle and creeping things and wild beasts.”
10. And so the seed for the life we know today as humans was planted and its name was LUCA.
Stories that have been passed down through an oral tradition are difficult to date. Generally the age of such creation stories are dated to the times when they first became anchored in writing. How they were written at that time often then becomes the source for future interpretation. If the written record truly encapsulated the stories is impossible to say for certain. The stories of old however have clear parallels with the science of now.
In the story above, the first paragraph is taken from the work of George Gamow and Ralph Alpher. They were physicists who in the 1940’s, were focusing their attention on the first moments after the Big Bang. They thought it was the moment at which hydrogen and helium were first forged. Their work led to conclusions that the initial moments would have been so hot only a formless mist could have existed made up of protons, neutrons and electrons. They called this mist, Ylem; a primordial substance from which all matter is formed.
The second, sixth and ninth paragraphs are well known, taken from Genesis.
The third and eighth paragraphs are taken from Norse mythology.
The fourth, fifth and seventh paragraph are the words of Professor Brian Cox, talking about the origins of the universe.
Paragraph 10 references LUCA which falls in the field of Astrobiology. It is the name given to a microbe that lived about 4 billion years ago. It’s name stands for Last Universal Common Ancestor. Following the genetic tree of life back, it would appear, according to the science, that the plants and animals all descended from this common ancestor.
The more advanced the scientific exploration gets, the closer it seems to align itself with some of the ancient creation myths. The beginning of the universe nowadays is talked about as a moment of a Big Bang. Scientists in CERN are colliding particles to recreate the conditions that existed 1 millionth of a second after the big bang. It is thought that that is the closest they can get to creation; the beginning of time and the beginning of the universe.
”It’s a remarkable fact that science took hundreds of years to come up with a theory to explain the origins of the universe. Just a hundred years ago, science considered the universe to be eternal, infinite and stable, no beginning and no end. So even framing the question about the origins of the universe was impossible.” Professor Jim Al-Khalili
It wasn’t very long ago when the universe was thought to exist of the Milky Way with nothing beyond, other than an infinite void. Edwin Hubble's work radically changed this understanding which has greatly contributed to the modern day theories. The universe suddenly became a place of billions upon billions of galaxies and huge cosmological structures.
The science of creation, the Big Bang, now describes a void filled with a mist from which hydrogen and helium emerged. The mist had a dark web stretching through the void. The Norse myth talks of a vastness filled with a mist with dark rivers flowing through it. The scientific theory explains hydrogen and helium becoming attracted to the gravity of the dark energy of the web. This in turn becomes so dense that it collapses in on itself and causes such huge temperatures that nuclear fusion occurs. This saw the ignition of the gasses and the birth of Blue Giants, extremely massive, hot stars. In the Norse, the story describes the mist cloaking everything and hanging heavily and the creation of Muspell; an intense fire where the mist burns into light. Surtr can be seen as the embodiment of time.
Time is key to all the creation stories, ancient and modern. It is the one commodity that is assumed and not doubted. At what point was the first measure of time? Another common aspect is the idea of a void, darkness and then light. A linear progression that seems so natural that it is as though we, as humans, just know. What fuels this sense of natural understanding? A sense that makes it seem a bit odd if we start to think, for example, about a creation story in which there was only light until an event that introduced the darkness, the space, the emptiness the void.
Only time will tell what the future science will be able to determine about the next page in their creation story. Whatever route the investigation takes, the stories of imagination that exist and will emerge should not be disregarded. What exists in life and the universe is more than just data. The stories that come to the minds of some people are not always just works of aimless fiction. The wisdom that exists in life and the universe, exceeds our individual states and offers, at times, narratives that are most definitely precursors to science fact, often standing apart from scientific analysis. The wonder of creation will always remain. Within it there are truths. If a truth finds you in a place transfixed by a moment of wonder in life, it is a moment that exceeds a mere transition of causality from Ylem, to light, to LUCA, to you, but certainly is a moment in time of a journey and story of creation.
Previous ramblings can be found in the archive. For last months, click the link: October 2021 Ramblings
