10 Controversial Theories About The Universe's Toughest Questions
1. God: A Triumph Of Familiarity Over Logic
To speak about the greatest questions in the universe and not at least touch on this would be cowardly, so let's dive in and see how much trouble we get in by the end.
Between 87-98% of the world's population believes in some form of deity or another. Some believe in the god of the Judeo-Christian bible, for others its Allah, for more it's Krishna, Buddha, Ra, Thor, Zeus, Osiris or any other of the one true gods. It would seem that with so many people and cultures each having some similarities in their stories yet each claiming theirs is correct to the cost of all others, the only logical conclusion is that none of them are right.
God, or gods as they started out, were answers to questions before we had all the other answers we've discussed here. When the first boy or girl looked to their parents and asked what are those points of light in the sky or why did our crops not grow this year the parent needed an answer and gods fitted just nicely. As a species we seem to like gods, whether it was to Ra the sun god, giver of all life or to Thor, the god of thunder with his mighty hammer, or the Aztec gods who demanded such copious amounts of blood in order that the harvest would be plentiful, people have prayed to external influences since the dawn of the internal voice.
In fact, we like them so much that it seems that we are ready to accept and believe the words of ancient philosophers and religious leaders over the testable, provable science of today and of our own eyes.
So, why do we hold on to this notion of a god who watches us, used to intervene (but now not so much) yet still judges all of us when we die? Why do people the world over claim to be part of a religion but pick and choose which parts they adhere to when it suits them? It is comforting to tell ourselves that we will see our loved ones again after we die but is that really enough to make us completely deny what we can see with our own eyes?
In fact, if a god had created humans then its fair to say they are a pretty poor designer. The plumbing is all wrong, there are hardly any backup systems, the eyes and ears are laughably bad and deteriorate rapidly with age and the slightest cut without antibiotics can kill you. Not to mention the genetic diseases when the code gets miscopied or misread.
Finally, if god did create the universe and everything in it just for man then why wait 10 billion years to create Earth? Or then wait a further 4 billion to start creating complex life? Then another several hundred million years messing about with Dinosaurs, Tiktaalik and Archaeopteryx before getting round to making primates, never mind the various iterations our species went through before settling on homo-sapien.
It is far more likely that there is no god, no afterlife and no eternal glory or damnation. So make the most of this life, because it may be all you get.
Still with us? What did you guys think? We'd love for you to get stuck in the comments and share your thoughts!