I’d like to propose we consider the beginning of the Universe for a moment. A difficult thing to imagine I know, but let’s work though it together. Visualize the blackness of space with no galaxies, no movement of any kind, just inky darkness. Suddenly there is an enormous explosion of light from a single pinpoint and elementary particles fly forth from it in all directions. These elementary particles collide, destroy each other, and create new particles in a continuous and furious expansion. This is my very simplified, non-scientific description of the Big Bang Theory, the prevailing scientific theory of the Universe’s early development.

Imagine now a supernatural being so complex, so powerful, so magnificent that any attempt we make at picturing this being falls incredibly short of the mark. This being, whose origins are unknowable to us, was the one who created this Big Bang. Out of the sheer power of its will, it mixed the elementary particles that would create a dizzying array of physical, chemical and cosmological laws that would shape an expanding and ever changing universe. Then this being left.

Approximately 10 billion years later, the being once again focused its thoughts upon the Universe it had started and picked a single blue-green planet, orbiting comfortably around a medium-sized star. Using the sheer power of its will, it sprinkled millions of disparate strands of RNA, DNA, and proteins all across the planet, which over billions of years had developed all the necessary atmospheric elements to support these molecules and bring them together in millions of different combinations to explode into life. Then this being left.

We don’t know, and can’t know where the being was before it started the Universe nor can we know where it is now. But we do know we can find no evidence of its current whereabouts.

Isn’t this being of my creation easier to accept than some of the other beings we’ve created? My story merges what we know about life and the universe (albeit in a ridiculously simplified way) with a creator,  yet doesn’t go on to give the creator human characteristics of envy, jealously, anger and phobia. Doesn’t it seem more likely that a being of such indescribable power be above the fray of man’s vices and petty arguments? Why would a being that can exist for billions upon billions of years and be capable of creating universes be interested in whether I cheat on my wife?

Imagine how the human race would be different today if we agreed that this was how life began? If we all agreed that there was a supernatural creator who set everything in motion for no other reason than it could. We would work together to improve the quality of life on earth for all mankind. We wouldn’t have to worry about which building to go to on which day of the week to recite certain words for the creator. That being isn’t around and isn’t involved in our lives. We wouldn’t have to argue about which supernatural being is the right one, which ancient book written by man was actually inspired by the supernatural being who created the Universe. None of them were. We wouldn’t feel that other humans were insulting our supernatural being and for that, they deserved to be killed. We wouldn’t feel there was anything wrong with advancing the cause of man through science. We would join together in our celebrations of new discoveries, and temporarily share the disappointment when our theories were proven to be incorrect.

Our time on Earth is so limited, the time of life in general on Earth is a blink of a cosmological eye. Our sun will ultimately become a Red Giant, exhausting its fuel supply and expanding its outer layers to completely destroy Earth’s biosphere, ending all life on it. We don’t know if mankind will still be living inhabitants of the Earth when that fateful day comes. What we do know is that we’re here now. How mankind spends its time on Earth is important only to mankind itself.