The standard Big Bang model faced troubling puzzles. Why is the universe so homogeneous, with regions far apart in space showing the same temperature despite never having been in causal contact? Why is its geometry so flat, balanced precariously between open and closed? Why did early irregularities not derail cosmic evolution?
The solution offered was cosmic inflation: a brief epoch of exponential expansion in the first fraction of a second. Inflation stretches space so quickly that it erases irregularities, flattens curvature, and sets up conditions for the universe we observe.
Technically ingenious and phenomenologically useful, inflation is also an ontological evasion: it functions as a cosmic reset button, invoked to wash away anomalies without rethinking the relational dynamics of the early universe.
The evasive manoeuvre
Inflation posits a hypothetical field (the “inflaton”) whose energy drives hyper-expansion. This manoeuvre shifts the burden of explanation: instead of grappling with why the universe exhibits large-scale coherence, physics assumes a smoothing mechanism that conveniently resets initial conditions.
The manoeuvre is compelling because it works retrospectively: inflation explains away anomalies by erasing them. But in doing so, it substitutes hypothetical mechanism for ontological clarity.
The ontological cost
Inflation defers rather than resolves the question of relational actualisation. Homogeneity, flatness, and structure are explained by erasure: they survive because inflation eliminated other possibilities. But the deeper question—how large-scale coherence emerges from relation—is left untouched.
The early universe becomes a black box: whatever problems exist can be smoothed out by invoking inflation. Actualisation is reduced to contingency plus erasure, not emergent alignment.
The epistemic collapse
Inflation’s flexibility undermines testability. With different inflaton potentials, almost any observed feature can be retrofitted. The theory risks becoming unfalsifiable, a narrative device rather than a scientific explanation. Epistemically, it trades rigour for adaptability.
The theological return
Once again, we glimpse theology in disguise. Inflation functions as a cosmic purgation: chaos is washed away, order restored, and creation made possible. It is the physics of redemption, a secularised Genesis where an initial burst of grace makes our universe liveable.
A relational reframing
A relational ontology dissolves the need for inflation. Large-scale coherence is not imposed retrospectively but emerges perspectivally from relational alignment. Constraints are collective, not erasures of contingency. Flatness and homogeneity are features of actualisation across scales, not artefacts of a hypothetical inflationary field.
From this perspective, the puzzles inflation “solves” are reframed: they reveal the inadequacy of treating the early universe as a chaos in need of smoothing. Relation is already structured, emergent, and coherent without a reset button.
Conclusion
Inflationary cosmology is an elegant technical fix that evades the ontological challenge of cosmic coherence. By appealing to erasure, it preserves the standard model at the cost of explanatory depth. A relational reframing restores intelligibility: coherence is emergent, not imposed; actuality is selective, not reset.
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