THE MIND OF GOD AND THE COSMOS by Lascelles James INTRODUCTION The Universe is an orderly mass of disorder created from nothing that was something ~ This paradoxical statement reflects some aspects of arguments that have been proposed in attempts to explain God and the nature and origin of the cosmos. However, this paradox is incapable of capturing the thoughts and arguments of those who devote time and resources to investigate the subject. Instead of the usual dialectics that have now become very familiar to the evolution vs creation polemic it is here suggested that the different views be examined rationally. This eclectic approach will peruse evidence from secular history, cosmology, existential philosophy, systematic theology, and Biblical manuscripts in order to better understand the mind of God and the cosmos. The opening sentences of the Jewish Tanakh or Old Testament of the Christian Bible offer the simplest of explanations for the origin of the heaven and the earth. 1"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light" (Genesis 1:1-3). One Bible writer exclaims poetically: "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork (Psalm 19:1). Physicist, Stephen Hawking suggests that if we find the answer to why we and the universe exist then we would know the mind of god."1 Some physicists propose that about 15 miillion years ago, a "big bang" brought everything into existence. Time, as well as matter and energy came into existence with the big bang. There was nothing before the big bang. Others assume that the cosmos has neither beginning nor end. 1 Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time (New York, NY: Bantam Books, 1998), 191. This investigation seeks to collate the information available on the mind of God and the possible origins of the cosmos. Truth-seeking comparisons will be made between the hypotheses that have been posited to explain these concepts.