The Dancing Heavens

It seems that the view of the heavens at one time was essentially that of a great dance floor or ballroom, which featured heavenly bodies moving in their own orderly fashions, skillfully, not running into one another. There was also music "the music of the spheres," because what is music but proportion, and harmony, and movement? The heavens were a joyful place. The closer one got to God, the further upward a person went, the faster the dance got, and the more joy there was.

Skip to now. The heavens are first of all silent, then mostly dark, empty, and cold, except when they're far too hot, with orbs of rock moving in airless space, somehow avoiding collision. We don't call it "the heavens" anymore. It's just Space. If we ever consider an "upward" to Space, the further up you go, the less you will be able to breathe or stay warm. Not joyful. And as one early astronaut said, He went to heaven and didn't see any God.

At least to the medieval, joy was in some sense status quo in the universe, even if earth itself was often grievous. The heavens themselves were singing, and if he couldn't hear, it was just the noise of his surroundings interfering. I know it's not scientific, and my apologies to our esteemed earth science teacher... but what a great cosomology.