The history of Western Civilization is the history of a culture that adopted a linear view of time. But now, because the Big Bang Theory has numerous problems, a new paper has proposed abandoning the linear view and taking a new look at a much more ancient model…

PROBLEMS IN THE MODEL

The Big Bang Theory is the prevailing theory of the origin of the universe among the Science Guild. It teaches that almost 14 billion years ago, the entire universe exploded from an infinitely small point, called the singularity. The concept bears its share of issues. At Space.com, we read the following:

However, there is no direct evidence of the original singularity. (Collecting information from that first moment of expansion is impossible with current methods.) In the new paper, Brazilian physicist Juliano Cesar Silva Neves argues that the original singularity may never have existed.

The major problems with the Big Bang Theory are that its predictions don’t match our measurements. One such issue is called the Lithium problem: there is less lithium in the universe than the Big Bang model says there ought to be. There are other, larger, problems, as well.

So, the new paper proposes a return to the eternally oscillating universe model:

The concept first appeared at least 40 years ago, and it agrees that the universe is expanding, but does not assume that the universe came into being when that expansion started and the universe was infinitely small. Instead, it proposes that the universe is eternally undergoing a cycle of contraction and expansion. These alternating phases smoothly follow each other like the phases of the tide. (Bouncing cosmology models are variations on Albert Einstein’s proposed cyclic cosmology model.)

CYCLICAL TIME

The idea is actually much older than 40 years. The concept of an eternal, oscillating universe goes back to the Ancient Greek, Chinese, Hindu, and Egyptian cultures. All pagan cultures, basically. At Wikipedia, we read the following:

In ancient Egypt, the scarab (or dung beetle) was viewed as a sign of eternal renewal and reemergence of life, a reminder of the life to come. (See also “Atum” and “Ma’at.”)

The ancient Mayans and Aztecs also took a cyclical view of time.

In ancient Greece, the concept of eternal return was connected with Empedocles, Zeno of Citium, and most notably in Stoicism (see ekpyrosis).

The concept of cyclical patterns is very prominent in Indian religions, such as Jainism, Hinduism, Sikhism and Buddhism among others. The wheel of life represents an endless cycle of birth, life, and death from which one seeks liberation.

With the most ancient cultures, the cyclical patterns of time and history were founded upon mythological origin stories. After the Greeks, thanks to the cosmology created by Aristotle and the cosmic geocentric universe model developed by Ptolomy, the cyclical pattern of time came to be governed by the stars. Astrology was a major topic since the movement of the stars was thought to influence history (and medicine).

The major cycle was the “Great Year,” and it generally, depending on the culture, varied from 15,000 years to 35,000 years. It was considered to be the time it took for the stars to move back to their original position in the night sky. The point of reset is known as the Eternal Return. The occultic Renaissance focused on this with their resurrection of the ouroboros symbol that goes back to at least the Ancient Egyptians.

THE HOPELESSNESS OF THE ETERNAL

All pagan civilizations adopted this cyclical view of time and history. It produced pessimism. For the Greeks and Romans, for example, the pinnacle was the Golden Age of peace and prosperity. It was all downhill from there. Virgil, during a time of political turmoil, wrote of his cyclical expectation of history:

Now the last age by Cumae’s Sibyl sung
Has come and gone, and the majestic roll
Of circling centuries begins anew:
Astraea returns,
Returns old Saturn’s reign,
With a new breed of men sent down from heaven.

Only with the Hebrews, and by extension, the Christians, did entire cultures begin adopting a linear view of time and history in which there was a definite beginning (creation), middle, and end (Judgement Day). History had purpose, and individuals have purpose and specific, divinely chosen roles to play in helping move it towards that ultimate purpose and end.

It was optimistic. It promoted long-term optimism and provided motivation to leave something behind for future generations. It was all under the governance of a sovereign God, not whimsical and capricious gods or impersonal chaotic forces. Only after the Roman Empire fell, and the remnants of European pagan civilization were consolidated and converted with the help of the Christian monks, was a sustainable culture created and given the time to gradually develop. This entire culture held to this basic concept of time and history. And out of that fertile civilization emerged science in the 1500 and 1600s.

It was an optimistic culture. It promoted long-term optimism and provided motivation to leave something behind for future generations. And now, atheistic science wants to abandon the foundation that gave birth to it in the first place.

It should come as no surprise that, as the academic institutions of the West formally abandon the Christian foundations of Western Civilization, comes a return to the pagan concept of cyclical time in the writings of our guilded Scientists.

The Big Bang Theory is a secularization of the Christian notion of linear history: beginning, middle, end. It is an attempt to remove God from the picture. A return to the cyclical model, even dressed up with scientific language, is a more self-conscious return to a worldview without God. Both attempt to provide assurance to atheists that there is no risk of Hell (temporary) and Final Judgment, much less the Lake of Fire (eternal).

Lastly, to end on a tangent: the counter-culture of the 1960s, which was also heavily occultic, gave us gems like this, which philosophically featured the Great Year at its heart: