ABSTRACT
Cosmology is a branch of speculative metaphysics concerned with theories about the large-scale space-time nature of the universe. It brings together thinkers from many disciplines including philosophers, physicists, mathematicians, astronomers and theologians. Aristotle placed the spherical earth central to a universe made up of translucent spheres to which were attached the sun, planets and stars. Modern cosmology envisages a universe of stationary galaxies set in an expanding space that is curved. The argument for intelligent design says that things are so perfectly put together that there must be a designer. Corpuscular philosophy together with Newton’s ideas, combined with the invention of the microscope and scientists’ general wonderment with the minutiae of creation to produce a committed belief that a designer’s hand was at work. Physicists, astronomers and mathematicians think that the ultimate cause and meaning of the universe is to be detected in its fundamental ingredients and patterns, and this has become dominant in cosmological thinking.
