Latter-day Saint cosmology is radically unique in that its end-state is neither eternal stasis and rest in the presence of divinity, a cyclical series of rebirths, nor loss of individuality and absorption into the cosmic consciousness. Our individuality is preserved and we continue expanding. Our experiences in life are not an infinitesimally small flash that leads to an eternity of stasis, but neither does it repeat in a loop; rather the experiences expand spiral upward and outward ad infinitum “from eternity to eternity”

My favorite Latter-day Saint cosmology quote is from non-member (but Book of Mormon fan) Freeman Dyson: 

No matter how far we go into the future, there will always be new things happening, new information coming in, new worlds to explore, a constantly expanding domain of life, consciousness, and memory.

This quote was a response to the spectre of heat death, the existential concrete wall at the end of the universe that Isaac Asimov was responding to in his classic science fiction short story “The Last Question,” (Asimov’s favorite story of his).

[Spoiler Alert]

A series of civilizations try to fight against the inevitable heat death of the universe prophesied by the second law of thermodynamics. They continually ask a supercomputer their civilization is built around whether entropy can be reversed, while the computer simply responds that it doesn’t have enough data. By the time the last person expires due to dissipated energy, the computer finally finishes its calculations and simply proclaims “let there be light,” beginning a new universe (and therefore reversing the heat death of the universe).  

[Spoiler Alert End]

I’ve spoken more about the philosophical and existential implications of heat death here. Suffice it to say, the issue of why the universe started in such a low entropy state in the Big Bang, as implied in Asimov’s short story, is still an open question in physics. 

My own take on this is that God’s ability to reverse entropy in the act of creation and through eternal increase is one of His defining characteristics. It’s His super power, if you will. Bringing order to the more natural chaos is the ur-miracle that all other miracles stem from. I suspect our ancestors intuited the existential importance this concept, which is why the theme of unorganized chaos being organized by the primordial Gods is nearly ubiquitous across the world. Whether it’s the biblical Leviathan and the Great Deep, the Egyptian Nun, the Norse Ginnungagap, or the Popol Vuh‘s creation myth, the creator Gods are almost always fighting (sometimes literally) against entropy. 

To get more speculative, I would not be surprised, from my read of the Book of Abraham (with even more speculation here) if God creates continual universes through Big Bangs and the like, essentially doing what Asimov’s computer did. (I’d love to conjecture that Asimov’s ex-Mormon second wife had some influence here in regards to the idea of continual creation, but alas the story came out before they married). Even Christ’s resurrection was in a sense a reversal of entropy akin to the beginning of a new universe arising from a disorganized, high-entropy situation. 

Finally, entropy and reverse heat death is another plausible interpretation of D&C 88, where it describes the Light of Christ as the power by which the celestial objects were made. 

Which light proceedeth forth from the presence of God to fill the immensity of space—

The light which is in all things, which giveth life to all things, which is the law by which all things are governed, even the power of God who sitteth upon his throne, who is in the bosom of eternity, who is in the midst of all things.