Creation, Natural nd Ontological Beginning.: Some Lessons from Georges Lemaître and Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

Abstract

We clarify the philosophical notions implicitly present in Georges Lemaître’s cosmology. We first show that he carefully distinguished the theo-logical notion of creation and the physical concept of physical (natural) be-ginning of the universe. We study his first cosmological work which did not involve any question of beginning and end of the universe. Afterwards, we explain how such a question arose in his work concerning the “Primeval Atom Hypothesis”. Reflecting on the ontological and epistemological status of the “Primeval Atom” we are lead to the concept of ontological beginning, which cannot be confused neither with creation nor with natural beginning (now the Big Bang, the initial singularity if any). We then consider the crea-tion representation in the thought of Fr. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. We ana-lyze the comparison made by Teilhard, in 1948, between his “Omega Point” and the “Primeval Atom”. This suggests us the need for a philosophical in-vestigation of the “Archê” of the universe which appears to be absent, but for different reasons, in Lemaître and Teilhard’s thought and works.