Cosmogony
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Cosmogony is descriptive of a theory or belief concerning the coming into existence, the creation or origin of the universe and existence; it systematically depicts an origin belief about how reality came to be. The word derives from the Greek Kosmogonia - from Kosmos "the world", and the root of gineō "to be born". In the specialized context of space science and astronomy, the term is used to refer to theories of creation of the Solar System and their study (for example, the Solar Nebula theory).
Cosmogony can be compared to cosmology, which studies the universe at large and throughout its existence and technically does not inquire directly about the source of its origins. There is some ambiguity between the two terms, for example, the cosmological argument from theology regarding the existence of God is technically an appeal to cosmogonical ideas rather than cosmological ones. In practice, there is a scientific distinction that can be made between cosmological and cosmogonical ideas. Physical cosmology is the science that attempts to explain all observations relevant to the development and characteristics of the universe as a whole. Questions regarding why the universe behaves in such a way have been described by physicists and cosmologists as being extra-scientific, though speculations are made from a variety of perspectives which include extrapolation of scientific theories to untested regimes and philosophical or religious ideas.
Attempts to create a naturalistic cosmogony are subject to two separate limitations. One is based in the philosophy of science and the epistemological constraints of science itself, especially with regards to whether scientific inquiry can ask questions of "why" the universe exists. Another more pragmatic problem is that there is no physical model which can explain the earliest moments of the universe existence (Planck time) due to a lack of a consistent theory of quantum gravity.
Epistemological limitations to cosmogony
The assumptions of naturalism that underly the scientific method have led some scientists, especially observationalists to question whether the ultimate reason or source for the universe to exist can be answered in a scientific fashion. In particular, the principle of sufficient reason seems to indicate that there should be such an explanation, but whether a satisfactory explanation can be obtained through scientific inquiry is debatable. Theistic explanations for origins indicate that one or more deity is the explanation, though some atheistic commentators point to this as an argument from ignorance or a God of the gaps fallacy.
As a result of this, scientific cosmogonies are often supplemented by reference to metaphysical and theistic belief systems, through three classical paradoxes. These paradoxes (discussed by both Kierkegaard and Leibniz) are:
- reconciling a doctrine of causation (similar to the 13th century proof of God posed by Thomas Aquinas);
- reconciling the conservation law ("something for nothing");
- reconciling issues of temporal (as in Zeno's paradoxes) and logical regression.
A scientific examination of cosmogony using existing physical models would face many challenges. For example, equations used to develop models of the origin do not in themselves explain how the equations came to be in the first place.
Planck time limitations to cosmogony
Planck time (10-43s) is the time it would take a photon travelling at the speed of light to cross a distance equal to the Planck length. This is the "quantum of time", the smallest measurement of time that has any meaning. Within the framework of the laws of physics as we understand them today, we can neither measure nor discern any difference between the universe at the time it first came into existence and the universe anything less than 1 Planck time later. Hence, it exceeds the limitations of an empirically-based science to find evidence of the nature of the origin of the universe.
Although the laws of physics lose experimental support at the Planck time, modern science has sought to clarify the nature of these paradoxes, so far with only limited success. For example, one can apply the current understanding of grand unified theories (GUTs) – both quasi-classical (such as general relativity) and modern (such as quantum gravity, superstring, and M-theories) – to these three primary cosmogonic paradoxes in thought experiments. While these result in some contradictions and lack completeness in a mathematical sense (being based on axioms that are 'merely' self-evident, but not robust under the stresses of radical scepticism) these paradoxes can nonetheless be analyzed rationally using the subatomic applications of quantum cosmology, particularly through the employment of the Schrödinger wave equations.
In each case, where general relativity fails as the curvature of space-time invokes singularities from its equations at t=0, the statistically "grey" nature of quantum cosmology tends to allow a scientific rationale to account for each paradox, and in so doing allows for a scientific perspective on previously theistic terrain. For example, application of quantum "fuzziness" (per the Wheeler-DeWitt application of subatomic position and momentum equations to universal radius and expansion) avoids boundary issues, as developed in the Hawking-Hartle Wave Function.
All such equations are based on differentials, which assume a continuum, where in our universe, affected by the Planck length and other minimum scales, this continuum has only limited meaning, about which philosophy remains in a state of semantic flux.
See also
- Cosmology
- Emanationism
- Esoteric cosmology
- Eschatology
- Existence
- Metaphysical cosmology
- Origin belief
- Religious cosmology
- Ultimate fate of the Universe
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