“Creation and Dissolution” (SB 3.7.37)

Alachua - July 10, 1995 / (077)

From one perspective, creation accounts offered in the Srimad-Bhagavatam can appear to correspond to aspects of contemporary Big Bang theory, particularly when considering that an initial form of energy undergoes transformation and condensation in order to generate matter and all subsequent varieties of form. However, Thompson notes that evolutionary thinking can also invite an analytical challenge if the potential for higher-order engineering is denied in favor of absolute chance as an ultimate cause. With that thought in mind, he notes how one of the 20th century’s greatest philosophers of science, Karl Popper, considered aspects of the theory to be a form of “promissory materialism” because of its inability to offer a comprehensive explanation for all the mechanisms of biological evolution. Thompson suggests that contemporary natural philosophers may well need to explore beyond the “x, y, and z” of simplistic disciplinary boundaries, in a quest to comprehend the expansive cosmos.