A New Creation Story

One of the problems with all of the world histories I know about is that they are human-centric to the near exclusion of all other species, forms of life, or planetary eras. While archaeology and  anthropology texts frequently delve with what they term "pre-history," it is difficult if not impossible to find a definitive story of how the cosmos and this particular universe within that cosmos came to be. In other words, it is hard to find a way to put the eye-blink history of a single species of being, of which we happen ot be members, into the broad context of not just the planet but the entire cosmos of which we are a part. And not only a part, but in many ways a consequence or result of cosmic forces.

The price we pay for such ignorance is that we make choices without the benefit of a big-picture view of their impact on our co-inhabitants of the grand cosmos. Such ignorance of our history can only, in the long run, have deleterious consequences.

The Universe Story by Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry represents the best effort I've seen to help us to spin a new story about ourselves, where we came from, our place in the grand scheme of things, where we're headed. Subtitled "From the Primordial Flaring Forth to the Ecozoic Era," this book is almost poetic in its description of the birth of the cosmos, the emergence of our own universe and its if not unique then at least highly unusual formulation, and the development of our physical surroundings. Swimme and his mentor have created a fluid, readable, exciting take on the new story humanity needs to escape from the dark ignorance and deliberate blind spots of past efforts.