Science and Technology Studies Commons^™

Cosmic Singularities: On The Nothing And The Sovereign, Mary-Jane Rubenstein

Mary-Jane Rubenstein

Until very recently, the creation myth of secular modernity has been the hot big bang hypothesis: the explosion of our single universe out of a single point. Physicists concede that in its traditional form, this story performs an uncanny recapitulation of Christian creation theology: the universe bursts forth suddenly, in a flood of light, out of nothing. As many contemporary thinkers have argued, however, the “nothing” of Christian orthodoxy is neither scripturally nor doctrinally self-evident; rather, it is the product of ontopolitical efforts to secure the sovereignty of God. This article traces the twinned concepts of sovereignty and nothingness through …