All ancient civilizations wondered about the nature of celestial objects and developed mythological accounts for the origin of an ordered cosmos from a primordial substance (water, chaos, etc.). The Judo-Christian tradition introduced an entirely new concept of creation, by which the universe (all that is, every creature, each instant of time) emerges from nothingness by the free act of a loving and rational God. Modern science has developed a remarkably faithful description of the physical processes responsible for the formation of the basic structures in the universe, from planetary to cosmic scales. While several issues are still open and pose serious challenges, we can describe in coherent physical terms the main stages of cosmic evolution. Initially the universe was characterised by a state of extreme simplicity, with high temperature and density, with slight density perturbations which acted as gravitational seeds for structure formation. The combination of cosmic expansion and of a variety of physical processes acting at local scales produced a series of transitions to increasingly complex systems. Cosmological observations now underway are producing a snapshot of the early universe with unprecedented detail, shedding new light on the physics at work some 14 billion years ago, just a tiny fraction of a second after the big bang. Thus scientific cosmology has superseded the mythological accounts of ancient cultures, by providing a rational description of the origin of structures through the wonderful fabric of natural laws. On the other hand, modern science leaves untouched the big question of creation: What is the ultimate source of all-that-is? Why reality (including space-time), instead of no-reality? Furthermore, modern cosmology arouses new fundamental questions: Why is the universe suitable for life and consciousness? What is the nature of physical laws driving cosmic evolution? What makes our understanding of the universe possible? (
Video)
Marco Bersanelli
