The beginning of the Universe at the “Big Bang” sets the stage for the drama of the human race. Earth forms 5,000,000 years ago, and after a period of planetary cooling, the development of the biosphere occurs. Evolution of life forms develops a broad spectrum of biodiversity. Primordial life forms come into being in the Earth’s early seas. Natural Selection plays a dominant role in the phenomenon of species differentiation and the rich diversification of both plant and animal life forms on the planet.

The Dinosaurs went to extinction about 65 million years ago, perhaps as the result of a large asteroid crashing into Earth. At about that time, the biological family of mammals started into prominence, and eventually became the dominant animal life forms. During the oligocene, about 35 millions of years ago, the first primates developed, a line of descent from which man would eventuallly evolve. The hominids appeared 5 to 7 million years ago, our close relatives in the animal world. Lucy, an australopithecus, lived three and a half million years ago in Africa. Lucy was bipedal, with forward vision, a skull placed on top of the the spinal column, and an opposable thumb. Lucy’s biological line was to dominate, and continue to develop cerebral power, intelligence, and ultimately language.

A million years ago, homo erectus was the dominant hominid. Homo erectus was of moderately tall stature, with a brain capacity over 1000 cc, close to that of modern man. Homo erectus emerged from Africa, and found his way throughout Europe and sourthern Asia. Homo erectus dwelt in southern France and the valley of the Dordogne, which because a busy place for early hominid settlement. The Neanderthals lived from 250,000 to 30,000 years ago, to be supplanted finally by fully modern man.

Early cultures with towns and agriculture date from 10,000 to 15,000 years ago. Usable writing was invented between 2000 and 1000 BCE. Within 500 years +/- culture florished, with rapid invention of most literary forms. In Greece, classical philosophy flowered with the Pre-Socratics, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. The Jews influenced civilization with their national writings, which became gathered together into their Bible. 

Chrstianity developed in the heart of the Roman Empire, and ultimately became Europe’s dominant civilizing influence. The Fathers of the Church during the five hundred years after Jesus’ time developed Christian theology, an amalgam of hebrew culture with the rationality of the Greeks, enlived with an active faith in Jesus Christ.

After the fall of Rome, European national societies gradually became established, with new achievements in philosophy, theology, art and architecture. Medieval culture grew, with the establishment of Universities, cities and new forms of trade and cultural growth. 

“Cosmos I” came into existence – a world view which was loosely unified but widely shared. The accepted view of the universe was geocentric. The accepted view of creation was the account given in Genesis, with the formation of a young earth, and the individual creation of the animals and man. The drama of the race – according to the general culture of the west – was that Man had been created by God in Eden, but fell from grace through the Original Sin of Adam and Eve. The human race was redeemed through the life and death of Jesus Christ, and the Christian Church was charged with carrying to all men the story of Salvation. The world’s history would run its course until Jesus Christ would come at the end of time to establish his eternal kingdom. 

From 1500 CE on, things rapidly shifted gears. Copernicus and Kepler studied the planets and their motions, dooming geocentricity. Galileo viewed the moons of Jupiter through his early lenses. The age of empirical discovery snowballed, with dramatic discoveries about the universe and its laws. Isaac Newton in his Principia Mathematica described the mathematics of the new universe. Great advances came in all areas of science and discovery: physics, chemistry and especially biology and a quite different account of the origin and natural history of mankind. 

“Cosmos II” has gradually developed – a world view positing a much older universe – dating from roughly 15,000,000,000 years ago, with the formation of planet Earth occurring 5,000,000,000 years ago. On earth, life gradually developed, apparently utilizing the mechanics of evolution. Rather than being created in Eden 5000 years ago, man came into being gradually, by evolution. Homo erectus, a pre-human hominid, lived from 1.4 million years ago, till 200,000 to 400,000 years ago, when Neanderthal Man came into prominence, to be followed by Modern Man only 30,000 to 40,000 years ago. 

The story of Cosmos II is the story of a developmental universe. First, the physical development of the celestial bodies, and, locally, of the solar system. Then, the evolution of life. The hominid line produced homo sapiens. Culture followed, with philosophy, religion, and, ultimately science. We have achieved a time when a shared effort is being made to relate religious thinking to scientific thinking. In the 21st Century, we have entered the Information Age, with unparalleled availability and sharing of knowledge and data.

A critical focus is human spirituality. The view of “Cosmos I” is being widely superceded. Spirituality was not “magically” grafted onto the tree of life, but has been developmentally emergent from it.