Student ponders universe

Jared Epps

Guest columnist 

So, there are a lot of theories about how the universe came to be and the nature of organic life’s place in an ever-expanding cosmos.

Among others, there are two theories I’ve heard more than others, and I feel these two in particular are worth examining. The first tells me that an old, bearded, white dude just decided to unleash creation and spacetime, and that he thought it was “good.” The other theory suggests that in the beginning, an incredibly dense and hot mass just happened to explode and unleash what is understood to be the universe.

Both of these theories fill in holes that human understanding fails to comprehend. Personally, I feel it’s silly to throw full support behind one theory and utterly refuse the other; both of them offer almost no solid, believable evidence and choose instead to ride the conjecture train.

In a way, the idea that the universe is the result of an intelligent design is more believable than the theory that the universe is the product of a random, inconceivable event. It’s hard for me to believe that the rigid, fundamental scientific laws of the universe are the product of a completely random circumstance; it’s too structured and orderly for me to assume such. 

However, it’s equally hard for me to believe that a conveniently human deity designed all of creation; the idea reeks of human self-importance and clever misdirection.

I’m not claiming that the universe was created by a massive space explosion, nor am I saying that it was born from the whims of the most popular of Earth’s millions of deities.

What I am saying is that I have no idea how the hell everything came to be, and the same probably goes for the rest of us.  Disciplines as comprehendible as our current science or religion probably don’t have the means to comprehend the nature of the universe and our place in it. The Big Bang theory gives me far more questions than answers, and the idea of Yahweh just throwing it all out there feels like a simple explanation for what we can’t possibly hope to comprehend.

As far as I’m concerned, how the universe came to be is beyond humanity’s understanding, and it’s probably something that’s best left alone. Do we really need to tamper with forces far beyond what our science can predict and understand?

Since our current religions and sciences can’t offer solid evidence about the conception of existence, we should just coast along on this beautiful blue ball for as long as we can and put these questions aside; when this information is readily available for perusing, you and I will probably be long dead.