The Mind of God Charles Murtaugh has some ruminations on cosmology and theology. Charles notes:

I'm the last thing from a cosmologist, so I guess I'm more susceptible to "God of the gaps" arguments when they come from this quarter than from biology. If you want some more apologetics on a cosmological basis, check out "Anthropic Coincidences", by physicist Stephen Barr. Readers may also be interested in this webpage describing the philosophy and science of "eternal recurrence," an ancient idea given new life first by Nietszche and now, apparently, by science.

The intersection between religion and science often leads to cosmology. The line between cosmogony and cosmology is a fine one. Sitting under the great bowl of the black night sky I suspect even the most hardy of creationists sometimes have an urge to cower like gibbering monkeys. The above quote from Charles indicates the questions that percolate up from the tumult in the field of cosmology don't often lead to Christ or Confucius-being so vague as to offer the glimmer of vindication for any belief. In fact, the idea of eternal recurrence is at odds with traditional Judeo-Christian thought-and harkens back to pagan Greek ideas of cyclical rather than progressive history. Scientists have their own axes to grind-surprise! The Steady State Theory championed by Fred Hoyle-even in the face of the cosmic background radiation and the vindication of the expanding universe Big Bang Theory-was appealing to physicists because its conception of an eternal cosmos did away with gods. But in the end the method of science overwhelmed the bias entrenched in the scientific community and Big Bang Theory (with the opening for Big Bang Theology) came to rule the roost. Of course, the story did not end there. Inflation (thank you Alan Guth) and its variants stormed the field in the 1980s and the previous decade of the 90s gave the observational astronomers their time in the sun as anomalous findings reintroduced heresies like the cosmological constant into the parlance. In the end, it seems that this is a time of change in cosmology. When I was a high school student in the early 90s the books I read seemed to focus more on the Grand Unified Theory instead of cosmology. Now I suspect the books aimed at the lay reader are more concerned with cosmology because the theorists have so much strange data to chew on (and when are you going to figure out dark matter for gods sakes!). The intelligent design folks attack the core of modern biology. Those who see God or gods in the very fabric of the universe are a different sort altogether, nibbling at the edges and farthest reaches of speculative physics. They ask why are we here at all? For a long time physicists have answered with the anthropic principle or the multiple universe theory. But I always feel this area of physics starts to melt into philosophy. Does it really have any meaning to ask about the beginning of the universe when ideas like beginning and end are drawn from the cosmos itself? These questions touch those regions of our brains that ask why instead of how. Physicists are tempted to be mystics-pandering to the public and boosting their ego by thinking they know why. And yet am I the only one that feels we humans are simply catfish at the bottom of a muddy lake marveling at the shapes that dance along the surface? Whatever God Charles Murtaugh believes in could have created this universe. And yet perhaps we are the dream of the eternal Brahma. Perhaps we come from the cosmic egg. I really don't know. Who doesn't walk down the street and ask sometimes-why? Why are we here at all. What is this miracle of existence? I think religion answers this sometimes. I don't believe this is religion's primary role-but I think it might be the seed of faith. The puzzlement that we exist haunts every human, from McDonald's clerk to MIT physicist. I want to know-but I'm not going to grasp at whatever comes along to satisfy my need. This is a big-an extraordinary-question. It will require an answer that befits its depth and gravity, and alas I find it hard to ascribe this universe to a Semitic sky god or a conjuring of Indian mystics. Perhaps our evolution as over-curious hominids precludes us from grasping our own natures. Perhaps the question of why will have to be answered when have engineered ourselves to the next step in self-awareness (instead of catfish, think carp).