It Was The Great Light

The world began with what it is now the fashion to call the "Big Bang."
It could not, of course, have been a bang of any sort, with no atmosphere to conduct waves of sound, and no ears.
It was something else, occuring in the most absolute silence we can imagine.
It was the Great Light.
--Lewis Thomas
(from "Late Night Thoughts on Listening to Mahler's Ninth Symphony")