Science and Mythology

Every civilization, since the very first civilizations at the beginnings

of history, needs creation stories/myths. Some of the best ones are from

the Bible, Greek and Norse mythology, and from the various native

American tribes. Without a credible creation story that helps us

undertand who and why we are here, we are, in effect, lost and

purposeless.

Most of us in the so-called modern world choose to place our faith in

the scientific method, at least in part because we are born into a world

largely shaped by scientific discoveries. So it's only natural that we

find the big bang, multiverse and cyclic universe theories compelling

and credible. And in their own way, they help us understand where we fit

in the grand scheme of time and space, why life exists, and how our own

personal self came into being. Creation theories, including the big

bang, say something (necessarily incomplete) about where our world is

heading (i.e., what is the ultimate end, and will things just get

started over again?) And they can help us feel like we are part of

something bigger, something that has existed before our personal self,

and will endure either "forever" or a very long time after we are

personally gone.

Whether human societies in the very distant future embrace science, the

scientific method, and scientific creation theories - we just can't know

that. In other words, if we're going to be open to a new idea right now,

we have to see science and the scientific myths we believe today, as

part of a long historical process. But this process, contrary to much

modern thinking, does not have an irreversible direction. Evolution,

including human evolution, does not evolve along a guaranteed pathway,

with the assurance of indefinite progress towards ever greater

scientific knowledge. We just don't know the future of evolution, or

whether the human race has a place in it, esp. given that 99% of species

that ever lived are extinct.

The progress we have seen over the last couple centuries simply could

not have happened without massive easy to exploit supplies of cheap

energy. That fossil fuel age is coming to an end, baring a totally

unexpected miracle discovery of carbon-free, near unlimited energy. So

21st century societies will be forced to live in a world with much less

energy than we've become used to. [I'm no happier about this than anyone

reading this post]. So, to simplify a bit, we can't have high energy

physics without lots of high energy. We can't run CERN on artisanal

windmills. And we won't be able to support the "unending" progress of

science and the scientific mythology that we tend to like, if global

civilization itself is struggling to get by on far less energy. So I

suspect that science will continue on, but with progress going much more

slowly by mid-century than what we have become used to. How the myths,

especially the creation myths, will change will be fascinating to watch

(but I don't expect to live that long)...