Introduction

Abstract

In human histories, it has long been God/gods who are said to have created the universe and who will end it; both G/genesis and eschatology have belonged to the realm of religious literature. Narratives of the beginning and the end have been powerfully influential, since it was believed that these stories came directly from an omnipotent, transcendental being or from some other higher power. In the contemporary era, however, when many advanced nations have become highly secularized and cosmological explanations for the creation of the universe such as the Big Bang theory have become widespread, people have come to accept science-based ideas of the beginning of the universe. As a result, non-scientific narratives of origin are transformed into myths, and lose their impact on present reality.

I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.¹

— The Book of Revelation