The Mythocosmological Context of Greater Earth
Arthur Woods, June 26, 2020
Abstract
Introducing a new perception of our planet called Greater Earth which is based on its true cosmic dimensions as defined by the laws of physics and celestial mechanics entails adding this cosmological concept to succession of cosmological myths that have accompanied humanity since it began contemplating its origins. Cosmological myths are based on the newest information available to humanity. These myths have a major influence on human affairs and are often incorporated into artifacts such as images, objects and structures which become visual symbols of the information embodied in a particular myth and are used to communicate and/or access the perceived understanding. In earlier manifestations cosmological myths were the basis of religion and more recently, in the form of scientific consensus. Subsequently, as new scientific information becomes available established myths continue to evolve and are eventually replaced by newer myths which exert their own specific influence on human thought and actions. The scientific method is the process of questioning the ongoing consensus in order to arrive at new insights and perceptions.
An Introduction to Mythocosmology
Throughout millennia humanity has wondered about its relation to the cosmos and about its ultimate role and purpose in the matrix of life. Based on the available knowledge of the particular moment in time, different perceptions - Cosmological Myths - were created to try to satisfy its quest to find meaningful explanations to fundamental existential questions explaining the dynamic structure and order of the cosmos. As knowledge increased though a process of making finer and finer discriminations about the nature of reality, the prevailing models of understanding were consequently modified or replaced by newer ones in order to have a more precise and believable explanation of where we came from, who we are and why are we here. This continuing process influences the way our species formulates its beliefs and conducts its affairs.
Both art and science are humanity’s attempts to describe the natural world and its place and purpose in the universe. The methods and subject matter may be different as well as their traditions, but the ultimate goals and motivations of scientists and artists are in fact similar. To understand the meaning our existence and to share that insight is one of the fundamental needs of our species. In today’s flood of scientific data, artists and scientists increasingly collaborate to give meaning to contemporary scientific concepts and discoveries which represent current cosmological interpretations. In literature, film and in the visual arts, some artists are using this scientific information to propose their own cosmological theories.
Cosmological myths - both ancient and more modern - have always been accompanied by the creation of artifacts such as images, objects and structures which become visual symbols of the information embodied in a particular myth and used to communicate and/or access the perceived understanding. The earliest lunar calendars, the Egyptian and Mayan pyramids, Stonehenge, the Native American medicine wheel, the Hindu statue of Shiva, Johannes Kepler’s Somnium, Carl Sagan’s Contact and Arthur C. Clark’s and Stanley Kubrick’s 2001, A Space Odyssey are all examples of how artisans and artists have imagined and visualized descriptions of the cosmos and humanity’s role.
Cosmological myths can be viewed from different perspectives. Scientific cosmologies, which are based on the study of the universe through astronomy and physics, constantly provides additional information which has successively challenged and replaced the ancient and older myths with newer ones. However, the focus on scientific questions often overlooks the impact these theories have on culture including politics and the arts. Thus, there are also anthropological cosmologies which are based on the proposition that ideas about the cosmos are an integral part of human cultural and social systems and are used to describe how the world works. Anthropological cosmologies draw upon scientific theories in order to construct models for activities in disciplines, such as politics, psychology and the arts. [1]
Questions about the origins of the universe, of the sky, of the Earth, of life and of humanity have given rise to many different myths and legends and continue to be the subject of intensive research by astrophysicists, biologists and anthropologists.[2] Subsequently, a greater sense of permanence in the daily existence of human societies led to the development of myths, particularly creation myths to explain the origin of the universe and how individuals fit in.
Ancient cosmological myths emerged once primitive groups of humanity developed language and then made their first attempts to understand and communicate the world around them. Their universe was very local consisting of the weather, natural occurrences such as volcanoes or earthquakes, abrupt changes in the environment and the day-to-day survival in their natural and social context. Anything beyond this immediate environment was considered to be supernatural. [3] These early cultures projected their inner thoughts and feelings onto an outer animistic world, a world where everything was alive. Through prayers, sacrifices and gifts to the spirits, ancient humans gained control of the phenomena of their world. This was an anthropomorphic worldview of the living earth, water, wind and fire, onto which humans projected their emotions and perceptions as guiding forces.
While most ancient myths maintain supernatural themes, with gods, divine and semi-divine figures, there was usually an internal logical consistency to the narrative. Myths were most often attempts at a rational explanation of the everyday world. Their purpose and goal was to teach and share the particular perception. Even though some of these stories today appear somewhat ridiculous, they were, in actuality, humanity’s first scientific theories.[4] Most often, these early cosmological myths closely followed a particular religion and were characterized by a close marriage of science and religion.
Around 20,000 years ago, humankind began to organize itself and develop what can be called “culture” which is a complex term but can be generally stated to be: - a method of transmitting meanings embodied in symbols, by which humans communicate and perpetuate their knowledge of and attitudes towards life.[5] Thus, cosmological myths that were often shared via symbolic means significantly impacted specific cultures as they became a vehicle to ideologically organize communities and societies into a particular belief system.
Scientific cosmologies – those that did not rely on supernatural or divine beings – began with the ancient Greeks. By the 5th century B.C., Empedocles and Anaxagoras offered arguments for the spherical nature of the Earth [6]. Pythagoras may have believed that the motions of the heavenly bodies suggested a kind of cosmic music that determined their paths [7]. Aristotle, believed that there were four fundamental elements, fire, air, water and earth and that Earth was place for birth and death of these elements whereas the heavens was a spate realm governed by its own rules [8].
Modern cosmologies can be traced back to the Renaissance covering the span between the 14th and 17th centuries and marking the transition from the middle ages to the modern era. For nearly two thousand years prior, classical cosmology – with the Earth as the unmoving center of the universe – had dominated astronomical thought. Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543) was a Renaissance polymath specializing in mathematics and astronomy. The publishing of his thesis On the Revolutions of Celestial Spheres is considered the landmark moment of the Copernican Revolution and a seminal event in the development of modern science. Copernicus proposed that it was in fact the Sun that was the center of the universe, with the motion of the celestial spheres having the Sun as their mid-point. Day was not caused by the Sun’s movements, but rather by the diurnal rotation of the Earth on a fixed axis. Often described as the lone astronomer credited with the Copernican Revolution, there were actually other thinkers that were arriving at a similar insight including Johannes Kepler who developed mathematical models for elliptical orbits and Tycho Brahe who collected substantial observational data for his own competing cosmological model.[9] In the 17th century Galileo Galilei (1564-1642), who is sometimes referred to the father of modern astronomy as well as the father of modern science, championed the concepts of heliocentrism and Copernicanism. These concepts were controversial during his lifetime, when most scientific authorities subscribed to geocentric models such as the Tychonic system. He met with severe opposition from astronomers, who doubted heliocentrism because of the absence of an observed stellar parallax. The matter was investigated by the Roman Inquisition in 1615, which aligned itself with the prevailing scientific consensus and concluded that heliocentrism was "foolish and absurd in philosophy, and formally heretical since it explicitly contradicts in many places the sense of Holy Scripture”. Galileo was forced to recant his theories and was sentenced to house arrest for the rest of his life. [10]
Numerous books and articles in all cultures have documented and explained these ancient and modern cosmological myths and their contributions to understanding humanity’s place and purpose in the universe.
Nicholas Campion writes:
“Modern scientific cosmology is valuable in itself for what it reveals about the nature of the cosmos we inhabit. It is a demonstration of the power of modern science to transform our understanding of who we are and where we came from. However, most cosmologists focus on scientific questions and are not fully aware of the impact of cosmological theories on culture, including politics and the arts.”[11]
“If we select four fundamental causes of changes in our perceptions of the world in the last century, then they would be first relativity, second quantum mechanics, third the expanding universe and fourth, the space program.” [12]
In 1917 Einstein published a paper “Cosmological considerations in the general theory of relativity” that applied general relativity to the universe, changing our view of the cosmos forever.[13]Indeed, his formula E=mc2 sums up all of the action and creation in the universe.[14] Today, the Big Bang Cosmological Model is the most broadly accepted scientific model for the origin and evolution of the universe. This model rests on two theoretical pillars: General Relativity and the Cosmological Principle. [15] By assuming that the matter in the universe is distributed uniformly on the largest scales, one can use General Relativity to compute the corresponding gravitational effects of that matter. Since gravity is a property of space-time in General Relativity, this is equivalent to computing the dynamics of space-time itself. The Cosmological Principle assumes the matter is distributed homogeneously and isotropically on large scales. The corresponding distortion of space-time (due to the gravitational effects of this matter) can only have one of three forms: The universe can be "positively" curved like the surface of a ball and finite in extent; it can be "negatively" curved like a saddle and infinite in extent; or it can be "flat" and infinite in extent – which is our "ordinary" conception of space.[16] Of course, what preceded the Big Bang is not covered by the current standard model of cosmology nor is the “space” into which the universe as we know it is expanding into – topics that will surely be the focus of future cosmological theories.
Looking outwards beyond Earth, space telescopes and spacecraft such as NASA’s Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) that was launched in June 2001 to make fundamental measurements of cosmology have reached out to the edge of the known universe, with its billions of galaxies.[17] Looking inwards, particle accelerators such as the Large Hadron Collider at CERN (Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire) are exploring the structure of matter at its very basic level. Yet, it is believed that 85% of the matter of the universe is a form of invisible Dark Matter which is composed of some, hypothetical, undiscovered sub-atomic particles.[18]
Indeed, there are other non-standard models for the origin of the universe which applies to any cosmological theory that does not conform to the current scientific consensus. Non-standard models include: the quasi-steady state model, the plasma cosmology model, non-cosmological redshifts, alternatives to non-baryonic dark matter and/or dark energy, as well as others. As most cosmologists do not usually work within the framework of alternative cosmologies because they are outside of the current standard model which receives the majority of the research funding and publication attention, these non-standard cosmological models are lesser developed. In his paper: “Non-standard Models and the Sociology of Cosmology”, Martín López-Corredoira provides an overview of these non-standard models and the issues inherent in contemporary cosmological discourse.[19]
When Earth was perceived of as the entire universe it gave rise to anthropological cosmological myths that continue to permeate and influence society into the present time. With the advent of space exploration humanity’s perception of its home planet became that of the Whole Earth - a blue sphere floating in the vast expanse of the cosmos. This perception has catalyzed the globalization of its cultures and defines many of its present activities. Significantly, humanity also discovered the “overview effect” as documented by space writer Frank White in his book “The Overview Effect: Space Exploration and Human Evolution” (1987) – a view from the unique perspective of astronauts resulting in a cognitive shift in awareness that our planet is a sublimely beautiful vibrant but fragile living organism shielded and nourished by a paper-thin atmosphere.[20] In his recent book “The Cosma Hypothesis: Implications of the Overview Effect” (2019) White proposes that humanity’s ultimate purpose in exploring space should transcend focusing on how it will benefit humanity but rather on how to create a symbiotic relationship with the universe, giving back as much as we take, and spreading life, intelligence, and self-awareness throughout the solar system and beyond.[21]
Earth Systems Science (ESS), which has many correlations with the Gaia Hypothesis proposed by James Lovelock and co-developed by Lynn Margulis in the 1970’s [22], is a relatively new discipline which considers interactions between the Earth's spheres: atmosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, geosphere, pedosphere, biosphere and, even, the magnetosphere - as well as the impact of human societies on these components. Earth system science brings together researchers across both the natural and social sciences, from fields including ecology, economics, geology, glaciology, meteorology, oceanography, paleontology, sociology, and space science. Earth system science assumes a holistic view of the dynamic interaction between the Earth's spheres and their many constituent subsystems, the resulting organization and time evolution of these systems, and their stability or instability.[23]
Greater Earth
All celestial bodies of significant concentrated mass exert a field of gravitational attraction around their cores which extends to the point of tangential intersection with other celestial bodies. This has led to a new perception of our planet which adds an additional sphere to the ESS concept. Called Greater Earth, it is based on Earth’s true cosmic dimensions as defined by the laws of physics and celestial mechanics. Earth's gravitational influence extends 1.5 million kilometers in all directions from its center where it meets the gravitational influence of the Sun. [24] This larger sphere, has a diameter of 3 million kilometers which encompasses the Moon, has 13 million times the volume of the physical Earth and through it, passes some more than 55,000 times the amount of solar energy which is available on the surface of the planet.
At this boundary between the Earth and the Sun is the Lagrange Point 1 (L1) where the combined gravitational forces of the Sun and the Earth create an area of equilibrium. [25] At this location a small object maintains a nearly stable position relative to the Sun and the Earth, and is where NASA has placed its Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) and its Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) which takes a photo of the Earth every two hours - in essence our planet continuously observing itself. [26]
However, Greater Earth is more than a region it is also a dynamic system. The Sun’s energy that reaches Earth warms the planet, drives the hydrologic cycle and is the primary source of energy for the climate system which keeps Earth suitable for life. Earth’s moon played an important role in the origin and evolution of life. Whereas the Earth’s gravity keeps the Moon in orbit, the Moon's gravitational influence on the Earth produces the ocean tides, earth or body tides, and the slight lengthening of the day and stabilizes its rotation period. In earlier times, the Moon was much closer to the Earth and its gravitational influence was much stronger, leading some scientists to believe the Moon played a significant role in the early evolution of life as the enormous tidal forces may have catalyzed reactions within the organic soup of early Earth. Over millions of years, Earth's rotation slowed significantly by tidal acceleration through gravitational interactions with the Moon and the Sun. The gravitational influence of the Moon has played a significant role in the Earth specific phenomena of plate tectonics and continental drift, forces that may also have been important to the evolution of life on Earth. Thus, the Sun’s energy and its gravitational influence on the Earth and the Moon and the interaction of these celestial bodies have created a complex and dynamic interactive system that has allowed for life to emerge and evolve on Earth – a system that is rare if not unique in the universe as far as we now know. This can be referred to as the Greater Earth System which adds a further dimension to this new perception of our planet.
Conclusion
This article indicates that today’s perceptions of the universe and of the Earth which constitute humanity’s current cosmological myth will continue to evolve and will surely be replaced by a newer, more precise and, as yet, unarticulated myth in the future. Greater Earth is a new perception of our planet based on its true cosmic dimensions which defines a region with a sphere of 3 million kilometers. Greater Earth is more than a region, it is also a dynamic system incorporating the Sun and the Moon that has allowed for life to emerge and evolve on Earth. As such, it constitutes a new cosmological myth and awareness could have new and positive impact on human society.
However, like all cosmological myths, this new perception should be challenged and eventually refined when more information becomes available and accessible. This will surely happen when humanity extends it civilization outwards from the surface of its home planet, to its closest celestial neighbors and beyond. As history in the 17th century has shown, when the astronomers of the time joined forces against Galileo because he did not conform to their shared belief system and they had no way to silence him, they turned to the Church, which condemned Galileo to life imprisonment. But in doing so, Rome was merely aligning itself with the “scientific consensus” of the moment. This is a warning that scientific consensus which is being used to shape human society today in many powerful ways, is not science. Knowledge is the result of using the scientific method to make finer and finer discriminations based on emerging information. Thus, knowledge and indeed truth are not opinions but are the result of a continual process of questioning established beliefs.
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