Questions Without Answers, by David Warren

Suppose, for the sake of argument, that you are God. (I would have proposed myself, but really, I am too shy.) Ask yourself some obvious, apparently simple questions about the universe that you have created. For instance, when did the idea of creating a universe first occur to you? And how long has it been since you began to put it into existence?

Was it created, literally, ex nihilo – out of nothing – or were there stages to be passed through?

Or to express this another way, did something like a Big Bang actually occur? And if so, did it happen at the beginning, or was it instead an evolutionary stage?

Was life, especially “intelligent” life, part of the original conception, or was it, as it were, an afterthought, once the material dimensions had been laid down? And was life designed uniquely for our planet, or are “life forms” (whether smart or stupid) to be found elsewhere? …