Universal Show

I watched a show on NatGeo, Journey to the Edge of the Universe (best seen in HD). Pretty cool and interesting stuff. However, I had a problem with some of the statements being made. Quite a few statements were made as if they were fact. Statements about things that happened a very long time ago that no one would really know if it was true or not, purely speculation. An example would be the statement made that the dinosaurs were wiped out due to an asteroid hitting the earth. I don't think we actually know that for sure. Speculative information put into the form a statement, as if it was fact, is just wrong. It creates false 'knowledge' that leads to wrong ideas and decisions.

In general though, the information the show was providing is very thought provoking. It got me thinking about the existence of God (any God really, not just a christian one). Some people argue that the existence of the universe is absolute proof for the existence of God (a single God being a more present day idea) since where would it all have come from if not from some supreme being creating it. Something had to create it all, why not call it God.

I sat there watching this show, what it was presenting me with, and started thinking, how could something have actually created the vastness of the universe. It is unimaginably big. How could anything create something so vast that it spreads out over billions of light years? How could we possibly be the only living beings in the universe (the program said that, based on a calculation, there should be millions of other planets with life in some form or another)? Why would we ever think we are the only or the 'created' ones by some God to be watched over, that there is some grand design for us? That would be very, very narrow thinking based on the ultimate size and diversity of the universe.

The idea of a God or gods, to me, is a good thing. It provides hope and meaning to many people, helping to combat thoughts of feudalism. It provides guidelines for living, a goal to achieve, some semblance of order. People need that or utter chaos would prevail. I believe it is what has helped us survive all these years. Here's an interesting thought for non-believers, could mankind have even evolved into a civilization without the idea of a God or gods.

The big question that gets to me is, what is the universe sitting in (or expanding into)? Is there just a never ending expansion of nothingness? Some things we will just never know in our very, very, very short time of existence. Sometimes it even hurts to think about it all.

Since I don't know everything, I have always allowed for the possibility of the existence of some ultimate power or being. If there is/was such a being, it may have given us life but it would have very little to with our lives and all that happens in it. So what it comes down to is that we are because we are and nothing more.