What's in a Word?
Ancient Greek Concepts in Modern Language

Cosmology

from Greek kosmos (order) and logos (mind, reason, word)

The term cosmology is used in the often overlapping spheres of science, philosophy, religion and pure speculation of the mind. In science, one regards it as an ongoing study of the universe and all its phenomena - although such study usually does involve much theorising and speculation as well.

Philosophers ancient and modern often base their insights on the science of the day, and try to bridge the gap between science and religion, both of which usually hold very different views of how the universe is structured, how it came to be, and whether or not there is someone out there who makes it tick.

What differentiates the cosmologies of scientists and philosophers most from religious cosmologies, is the fact that within most religions there is no room for doubt ... and thus for improvement.

Within the various religions the world has seen come and go, any speculation is usually disapproved of - one rather aims to achieve that everyone adheres to the same view, never mind that such views are usually outdated and plain wrong.

It took, for example, from 1633 to 1992 until the Roman Catholic Church would admit, by way of Pope John Paul II, that sentencing Galileo (1564-1641) for heresy had been wrong when he insisted that the Earth rotates around the Sun - in a solar system - rather than that everything rotates around the Earth; with Rome as the axis mundi.