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In the 1500s the essayist Montaigne -- a Roman Catholic by the way -- complained that nothing is so firmly believed than that which we know least. This is still happening regarding a beginning of the universe. A few have declared that the universe started from nothing. They do not know what minutia may lie in what they call nothing. Also, there is an opposing idea to such a beginning from nothing: infinity, in other words no beginning and no end. We don't know enough to claim that the universe is finite or infinite, while those who argue about a beginning are stuck with a pre-Einstein concept of time. If we can't establish that there was a beginning, we can't argue about what happened in the beginning -- as in Creation Theory. This does not necessarily destroy faith, but it leaves people less encumbered by myth and metaphysics.
Copyright © 2006 Frank E. Smitha. All rights reserved.
address of this article: http://www.fsmitha.com/com/origins.htm