The Logos Continuum: The Cosmic Sculptor

Early in 1992 scientists officially announced their discoveries of the oldest and largest cosmic structures known. By using the millions of measurements taken by COBE--NASA's Cosmic Background Explorer satellite--these scientists were able to analyze the oldest snapshot of the ancient events that ultimately led to today's Universe.

Scientists were able actually to make direct measurements of "ripples" that were born in the explosion of the Big Bang. In a sense COBE had discovered the fossils of Creation.

In 1964 scientists had confirmed the afterglow of the Big Bang, which fills the Universe. And COBE made it possible for scientists to measure this glow--located in the long-wavelength microwave portion of the spectrum-- to an accuracy of one part per million.

These measurements, these tiny one hundred-thousandth-of-a degree temperature variations are the imprints of the ripples in the fabric of space-time that were caused by the Big Bang. And through the billions of years these ripples have formed the galaxies, the galaxy clusters, and the voids of space.

This first cosmic snapshot by COBE allowed scientists to see the forces that would ultimately determine the future shape of the Universe. COBE had permitted scientists a glimpse of those early seeds of Creation that were laid the first billionth of a second of the Big Bang.

Using analogies to describe what they were seeing, COBE's cosmologists considered these ripples to be acting like rocks rolling from atop a mountain--gathering momentum, gathering more rocks until there were countless avalanches, which accumulated in great piles at the bottom of the mountain--the present Universe.

But the scientists' equation has led to a mystery--in that they theorize that normal matter could not have moved around fast enough, between the Big Bang and now, to build the clumpy Universe we know today. The cosmologists surmised that this "means there has to be some form of unseen matter acting as the cosmic sculptor." [WASHINGTON POST, 24 Apr 92]

Of course what the scientists are talking about here is what they term "dark matter." This is matter, seemingly not observable to their instruments as of yet; however, their theoretics are working towards accounting for this mysterious stuff.

As for myself, I wonder far and beyond just dark matter as the "cosmic sculptor." We live in wonderous times, in that we have been privileged to understand a little of the miracle of the Big Bang. Through such technology as the Hubble Space Telescope we stand in awe at the majestic process of seeing some of Creation unfold--from the earliest galaxies to great gaseous nebulas serving as nurseries to fledgling stars.

We also see the tremendous flare and fury that goes into the universal process. There is a constant cycle of birth and death all around, from stars to starfish. Yet Life seems to prevail under these most strenuous of conditions. Out of the great, massive death of stars comes the ingredients to form new stars and much more. The ingredients of Life float through the Universe, like pollen in the air. And sometimes Life finds an amenable environment and takes hold.

I wonder in the midst of all these small revelations pouring upon us, I wonder what this Cosmos is being sculpted for? Why the Cosmos in the first place?

All this space, all these great galactic clusters, all the millions upon millions of galaxies, all the stars and their planets surely must have meaning! We have come to realize that *information* propells the cosmic process of unfoldment. It's mathematical, bit-by-bit. It looks to be that Creation was intended.

What of Creation, what of us? Does all this, all of us, have purpose--cosmic import?

Pondering that we live in a Cosmos that scientists now consider to be a Web of Relationship through and through, we repeat the question of import? Matthew Fox, priest and promoter of Creation-Centered Spirituality, poses the question more specifically.

Fox believes the Cosmic Christ--as the evolving promise of an Logos incarnating--is the "pattern that connects". Turning towards modern cosmology, Fox stresses that "we must ask how we relate to the rest of the Universe--to the tiniest neutron and proton as well as to the--galaxies light years in advance of our own." [Matthew Fox, THE COMING OF THE COSMIC CHRIST, Harper & Row, 1988, p. 143]

To perhaps better understand our cosmic situation, it might be helpful to return to the idea of the Cosmic Christ, the Pantocrator--Christ as the Incarnation of the Logos.

For the early Christians--Christ was the "Word." To quote: "When all things began, the Word already was. The Word dwelt with God at the beginning, and through him all things came to be; no single thing was created without him." [John 1: 1-3]

In this we have the idea of the Creator's emissary, the Logos-- or if you will, the Foundational Code that underlies the Ground of All Being. As Christ reputedly put it himself: "It is I who am the light which is above them all. It is I who am the All. From Me did the All come forth, and unto Me did the All extend. Split a piece of wood, and I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find Me there." [James M. Robison (ed.), THE NAG HAMMADI LIBRARY, Harper & Row, 1981, quote (77), p. 126]

Now whether we believe in the Cosmic Christ through faith, or as an insightful intuition, or as an inner imago--there has been down through the ages this sense of the Logos, this sense of Foundation and Attractor of the Cosmos, the Alpha and the Omega that holds together, that beckons and guides the Universe. This is a contemplative concept that has long been with us.

If true in our hearts, than it is this Logos that gives us import! The Logos *lives* and moves through its Creation--towards a special unfolding fulfillment? Creation is the expanding, sculpted Life of the Logos. We all, all of Creation, move within this great "pattern that connects," the Logos!

Ultimately what this conceptual revelation tells us is that within this universal process, we, too, in our unfoldment are *sculptors of the Cosmos.*

What is it that we are sculpting? What is this Cosmos intended to be? One can only contemplate--but we are coming to a slowly growing realization that there is an All, that indeed the Creation is actually an evolving Cosmic Entity. Our gradual awareness of this *cosmogenesis*--of which we are a part--is beginning to influence the way we think and has prompted some of us to realize our responsibility as "shapers" in this observer-participant Universe.

By doing so, we find purpose and sense our significant cosmic import. By becoming "sculptors" of our world, we not only make our Universe--but the very nature of this engagement brings us into relationship with one another, with other life forms, with our planet and Cosmos. We become cosmic family, we become as branches to the Vine of the Logos.