Imagine Edwin Hubble's surprise when he learned that we live in an expanding universe.

I mean, what a big deal that was.

It's so hard for me to express how much of a change that one set of observations, that one

conclusion, that one paper that he published, that he presented changed everything.

This period when Hubble was operating in the early 20th century is so fascinating to me, and that means we're going to talk about it because it's my show, because it contrasts the physical cosmology that we have now, our view of the universe, its history, its contents through the lens of physics,

to the cosmologies, both physical cosmology and other spiritual,

let's call them spiritual cosmologies of the past.

And there's so many creation stories and thoughts.

People have been thinking about the universe at large scales ever since

there's been people to think thoughts, basically. And there's so many ideas, there's so many

stories. It's impossible to catalog them all in the brief time that we have together. But in my

mind, there are two broad categories of creation myths. One are the

linear ones where boom, the universe started, and then the universe is doing his thing right now,

and then boom, the universe will end. Or they're the cyclical ones where the universe, in some

sense, has always existed, but there have been endless cycles of death and rebirth.

And one thing that strikes me, and I could be wrong, so feel free to send me examples otherwise,

is that no matter the story, no matter the tradition, the universe is.

It's just always there.

Here on Earth, we have messy lives and complicated lives.

Sometimes the god or gods mess with us in these stories. But the larger cosmos is just

the cosmos. It's just there. It's just hangs out above us doing its thing, not really changing over time.

It might go through cyclical, like where the whole universe ends and then begins again or ends and then that's it.

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