Some current scientific theories of cosmogony demonstrate significant similarities to the cosmological theories of mythology and of certain religions. The notion that the universe originated in a specific cataclysmic explosion raises the mental construct of a center of the universe. This concept plays an important role in mythology and is related to the idea of the cyclical renewal of time. Such concepts, both scientific and mythological, serve as reassurance against the fear of extinction. Aspirations to immortality re-emerge in disguised form in the search for life elsewhere in the universe. Some of the cosmological theories resemble metaphorical elaborations of childhood concepts of procreation.