Cosmic Questions Home

• Preface - Jim Miller
• Cosmic Questions: An Introduction - Joel Primack and Nancy Abrams
• Closing Reflections - Jim Miller

Did the Universe Have a Beginning?

• Athens and/or Jerusalem: Cosmology and/or Creation - Jaroslav Pelikan
• Scientific Cosmology Meets Western Theology: A Historical Perspective - Owen Gingerich
• Standard Big Bang Cosmology: The Big Bang Really Happened - Sandra Faber
• A Recipe for Primordial Soup - Rocky Kolb

• Eternal inflation - Alan Guth
• Inflation and the Beginning of the Universe - Neil Turok

• The Idea of a ‘Beginningless’ World-process: Hindu Perspectives - Anindita Balslev
• Is the Universe the Creation of God? - Robert John Russell

Was the Universe Designed?

Cosmic Evolution and Design

• The Meaning of Design - John Leslie
• Cosmology, Life and the Anthropic Principle - John D. Barrow
• The Argument from Design: What is at Stake Theologically? - Anna Case-Winters

Is the Universe Designed?

• No - Steven Weinberg
• Understanding the Universe - John Polkinghorne
• Steven Weinberg and John Polkinghorne: An Exchange

Religious Reflections

• Is the Universe Designed? Yes and No - David Ray Griffin
• Cosmic Design from a Buddhist Perspective - Trinh Xuan Thuan
• What Did the Mystic Say to the Hotdog Vendor? or Nothing by Design: A Neo-Kabbalistic Perspective - Rabbi Lawrence Kushner

Are We Alone?

Life in the Universe

• The Origin and Evolution of Life on Earth - Sara Via
• Searching for Life in the Universe: Lessons from Earth - Kenneth Nealson
• Homes for Extraterrestrial Life: Extra-solar Planets - David Latham

Intelligent Life in the Universe?

• What is SETI? - Jill Tarter
• Not Likely - Irven DeVore
• The Outlook for Cosmic Company - Seth Shostak

Theological Reflection

• Theology After Contact: Religion and Extraterrestrial Intelligent Life - John Haught