On the Origin of the Universe

Layout:
Intro - Why is this such an important question
C1 - The innate sense of a creator
C2 - The challenge of finding a creator
C3 - The possibility of creation without a creator
Conc - Living together in mutual ignorance

On the plains of the African Savannah approximately one million years ago, families of advanced primates sat near a fire, grooming each other and sharing the stories of their lives in their ever-increasing oral language. Surely, even these early humans had a philosophical concept of time, the ever-marching beat of life pressing irrevocably into the future. Humans and creatures filled space in a world that seemed infinite, but mattered only on the smallest scale. Inferring from experiences with the lives of organisms, certainly the world must have a beginning and an end, but when was the beginning, and how did it happen? This questions persists into the modern day, and there is no reason to doubt that it will persist until the end of the species. Knowing that the world must have had a beginning creates a void because we do not know how, where, or when that beginning was. If we could discover the details of the Universe's inception, we might learn more about the reasons for our existence and how we should best use our lives. Unfortunately, no one was there to see it, so all theories are merely speculation, some supported by mathematical reasoning, but all equally inconclusive. The human mind instinctively searches for a creator of any creation, as all things on Earth have had a creator, but we have so far been unsuccessful in finding any evidence for this creator, and there is even growing reason to believe that the creator was not even necessary.

The unfathomable expanse of life on Earth, the inextricable complexity of its ecosystems, and the awe-inspiring natural phenomena that occur every day all indicate to the simple human mind that some intelligent being must have put it all together. A common claim of the religious is the "watchmaker" analogy. Suppose you find a watch in the sand. You take it apart and see the intricate workings of the cogs and wheels that make it keep time. The pieces of the watch certainly did not just fall into place that way out of pure chance. There must have been a watchmaker that built that watch. Looking at the workings of life and its intricately placed pieces, it reasonably follows that at the beginning, there was a designer.

Not only must there be a creator, but it is human nature to want a creator to exist. It has been shown that people are happiest when they feel useful. They feel as though they have a defined purpose and that they are fulfilling some piece of an larger objective. For most, this sense of usefulness arises from the commands of a superior. Whether it be an employer, a parent, or a public leader, the people want to play their part in helping the whole succeed. (going hypothetical here) In early human development, those that were useful to the tribe or town would have been the most respected. Respect means mating rights, so those that had the predisposition for contribution would have passed these traits most often. In the modern era, this trend continues even in disestablishmentarian ideals, there exists a gratifying sense of unity that comes from one's participation in the success of a common goal. In everyday life, there is often no overseer or leader to define an objective, and for most people, it is very difficult to define their own satisfying life goal. However, a supernatural creator can fill that void. Religious teachings define a god who created the world, and this creator often defines guidance for its followers' lives. Hence, people not only instinctively believe there should be a creator, but they would feel uncomfortable challenging that belief.

The great issue with the belief in a creator is the ubiquitous inability to verify the existence of this creator. Many religions refer to a supernatural being that created the Universe and may or may not continue to dabble in its affairs. However, there are hundreds of such belief systems, and dividing them is the nature of the aforementioned supernatural being(s). This arises from the fact that no empirical evidence has been recorded to show that any one of them really exists. The knowledge of such things relies on the so-called "enlightened" minds of prophets and spiritual leaders, who most often come to learn of the supernatural world while in an altered state of mind. Even in those religions with holy scriptures that recount the events that transpired while the spiritual leader was enlightened or in the times when this deity showed itself to its people, no conclusive physical evidence beyond the writings remains. While it is wholly possible that the supernatural world the spiritual leaders have accessed is as of yet inaccessible to modern scientific measuring devices, the more reasonable explanation for the persistent elusiveness of these deities is that they were merely creations of the imaginations of the prophets, teachers, and spiritual leaders.

If this is the case, though, we must find an alternative explanation for the beginning of the Universe. It is undeniably clear that the Universe exists and that it contains things - namely, us. Assuming that the Universe exists in a finite span of time, these things must have had a beginning. Current scientific theory, colloquially referred to as the "Big Bang" theory, predicts that the Universe has been expanding since its beginning from a singularity in which all things that exist today occupied the same point in space and time (that's not strictly-speaking true; time and space were all in this little bundle). Understanding the law of causality (every action has a preceding cause), without a supernatural being, there is seemingly nothing to cause this singularity (or nothingness) to burst into the rapid expansion that brought it to the state it is in today. However, theoretical scientists like Dr. Lawrence Krauss have shown that what was once understood as empty space contains far more than just nothing. Particles and anti-particles are spontaneously appearing and annihilating every instant. These spontaneous appearances may have interacted in such away to create the massive chain reaction now known as the Big Bang. As Professor Stephen Hawking describes it, at the instant of the Big Bang, all of space and time was compressed into one point. The question of what preceded the Big Bang is a logical fallacy in itself. The law of causality fails at this instant when time did not have a direction. Based on these theories, there is no need for a creator at all.

Of the seven billion people on this Earth, there are probably ten times that many theories of the creation of the world. Many are demonstrably false, but none are undoubtably true. The only thing that is for sure, is that until a deity shows itself to humanity (and someone gets it on tape) the world will never agree. The most terrifying part is that people are willing to fight to the death over these speculations. The question we need to ask is, "Does it matter?" Does it really matter who or what made the Earth? Does it matter whose book is more or less right in directing our way of living? We are rational beings, and we have the capacity to choose for ourselves what stories we believe, if we believe any of them. There are enough problems in the world the way it is without worrying about the beginning of time. Although this question is an interesting one, there are people devoting their lives to concocting theories of how it all happened. For the rest of us (particularly the ones making a living doing something else), we should focus on solving the problems that face us now. Our expanding population is devouring the resources of the planet and disrupting its natural balance; people in our own country, city, and neighborhood face persecution, hunger, and homelessness; and relentless warfare continues to tear apart the lives of the innocent. Even a fraction of the world's population could make considerable gains toward solving these or any of the myriad of other issues facing the human race with minimal effort if that effort worked in unison with others.

Personally, I believe that the Earth formed 4.5 billion years ago along with the rest of the solar system in a period of stellar development nearly 9 billion years after a singularity of spacetime burst in to the Universe we see in our skies. However, my belief of that theory does nothing to better the lives of any of the 7 billion people currently living upon this planet. It may be the first question, but there are many others that deserve answers first.