If we compare parts of the scientific cosmology framwork of today with that of Newton’s time, something interesting quickly appears: Scientists like Newton strictly separated between what is science, and what is the belief in something spiritual or transcendent.
Scientists today often claim to be strictly rational and non-spiritual, but have instead inserted religious sentiments into the very center of science with creation myths like a “big bang” without a cause, and a dogmatic belief in ideas like “expanding space” that has no sound basis in evidence nor observations. To some extent it would be better for science to return to a clearer understanding of its own limitations and boundaries, and then leave the mysteries beyond these limitations to the more moderate spiritual and metaphysical traditions. And there will always be a beyond, no matter how advanced science eventually and progressively grows.
Newton famously wrote about his personal beliefs in his “General Scholium”, a form of epilogue or afterword, to his Prinicipa Mathematica in 1729:
“This Being governs all things, not as the soul of the world, but as Lord over all: And on account of his dominion he is wont to be called Lord Divine παντοκράτωρ, or Universal Ruler. (..) The supreme God is a Being eternal, infinite, absolutely perfect; but a being, however perfect, without dominion, cannot be said to be Divine; for we say, my God, your God, the God of Israel, the God of Gods, and Lord of Lords; but we do not say, my Eternal, your Eternal, the Eternal of Israel, the Eternal of Gods; we do not say, my Infinite, or my Perfect: These are titles which have no respect to servants. The word God usually a signifies Lord; but every lord is not a God. It is the dominion of a spiritual being which constitutes a God; a true, supreme, or imaginary dominion makes a true, supreme, or imaginary God. And from his true dominion it follows, that the true God is a Living, Intelligent and Powerful Being; and from his other perfections, that he is Supreme or most Perfect. He is Eternal and Infinite, Omnipotent and Omniscient; that is, his duration reaches from Eternity to Eternity; his presence from Infinity to Infinity; he governs all things, and knows all things that are or can be done. He is not Eternity and Infinity, but Eternal and Infinite; he is not Duration and Space, but he endures and is present. He endures for ever, and is every where present; and by existing always and every where, he constitutes Duration and Space.”
He then goes on to discuss the nature and mystery of Gravity itself, and outlines a clear distinction:
“Hitherto we have explained the phenomena of the heavens and of our sea, by the power of Gravity, but have not yet assigned the cause of this power. (..) But hitherto I have not been able to discover the cause of those properties of gravity from phenomena, and I frame no hypotheses. For whatever is not deduced from the phenomena, is to be called a hypothesis; and hypotheses, whether metaphysical or physical, whether of occult qualities or mechanical, have no place in experimental philosophy.”
So these are the words of one of the greatest and most influential scientists and physicists of all time, clearly delineating science’s domain from the overall big picture of “everything”.
A similar sentiment was expressed in 1908 by the scientist and physicist Henri Poincaré who laid much of the foundations for the Theory of Special Relativity, and described the formula E=mc^2.
“However great our activity, facts outstrip us, and we can never overtake them; while the scientist is discovering one fact, millions and millions are produced in every cubic inch of his body. Trying to make science contain nature is like trying to make the part contain the whole.”
For more new explorations and progress in science and especially in cosmology - we need a return to a more humble approach and recognize the domain and somewhat narrow limitations of science. Only then can a new golden age of discovery and enlightenment flourish in our understanding of the Universe, once again.