The New Cosmic Story | The Story is Not Over

“In all this debunking of religion, a persistent background assumption is that the physical universe is pointless because nothing of lasting importance seems to be going on there. As it turns out, however, something has been going on in the universe, something undeniably and dramatically important. The drama began long before humans came along, and it is still in play. During the past two centuries, science has gradually presented the universe for all to see as a grand adventure, full of twists and turns we never knew about until recently. And today science allows ample room for even more surprises up ahead. As the cosmos has developed over billions of years, entirely new kinds of being—most notably life and thought—have emerged. These are two cosmic developments that none of us could have predicted had we been around to witness the inauspicious elemental state of the early universe. Since even more surprising developments may be waiting to take place farther along on the cosmic journey, therefore, the contemporary secularist verdict that the universe is manifestly pointless, that evolution is a meaningless experiment, and that religion is illusory, may be premature. The story of the universe, after all, is not over.”

– John F. Haught, The New Cosmic Story

The New Cosmic Story | Religious Inclination

”Religion, however, has to do not only with the need for consolation and healing in the face of perishing and suffering but also with the overflowing sense of wonder at the fact that anything exists at all. In this respect religion has its origin in a sense of grateful surprise at the mystery of being. At some level, all conscious beings, including those who call themselves irreligious, experience the shock that anything exists at all. We humans, however, have devised countless ways to avoid acknowledging the mystery of it all, today perhaps more than ever. In most eras of human history, nevertheless, responsiveness to the gift of existence has manifested itself in an instinct to worship a hidden and indestructible source of all being. This religious inclination has come to expression in symbols, analogies, metaphors, rituals, myths, and theologies. These obscure modes of communication point allegedly to an indestructible and transcendent dimension of being from which we came, toward which we are destined, and in whose ambience we find both moral guidance and a meaning for our lives.”

– John F. Haught, The New Cosmic Story