Theology, Philosophy, Science, and Big History

Although Big History has been producing growing impact upon the academic and learning communities, its ideas have yet to penetrate deeply into the broader mindset. One of the reasons for this is that there is bound to be some natural resistance to Big History, since Big History challenges the manner in which humans have traditionally regarded themselves, including their anthropocentric bias towards the notion of an inherent human eminence. This bias permeates nearly every branch of human study, including theology, philosophy and science, and can be seen for instance in the way that humans have crafted humanlike gods and have once seen fit to place Earth at the center of their universe. Although Big History recognizes and promotes the specialness of the human species, Big History paradoxically does so in a manner which challenges the idea of an inherent human eminence. Therefore, Big History will have a wider impact when its concepts begin to infiltrate and to alter the more traditional forms of human study, giving them the opportunity to be seen afresh from the broad perspective that Big History brings.