Religion, Science

The Existence of God

  • To the best of our knowledge, the universe is 13,799,000,000 years old, plus or minus 21,000,000 years and, at the very least, 154,000,0000,000 light years wide (though many believe it to be much larger) and, to the best of our knowledge, it took this long to get this big.
  • To the best of our knowledge, the Milky Way, our galaxy, formed about 12,500,000,000 year ago (or approximately 1.299 billion years into the history of the universe), or thereabouts, when the universe was quite young and (relatively) tiny.
  • To the best of our knowledge, our solar system formed about 9,200,000,000 years ago (or approximately 4.6 billion years into the existence of the universe), when the universe was much, much smaller.
  • The Earth, our planet, formed 4.54 billion years ago (or approximately 9.26 billion years into the history of the universe), when the universe was, in all likelihood, significantly smaller than it is today. If you don’t accept the above, there is literally nothing I can say to you that will change your mind and you should stop reading this.

  • Sometime between 3.77 billion years ago and 4.28 billion years ago, the first lifeforms evolved on Earth.
  • We believe that animals first evolved at least 665 million years ago (or 13 billion years into the existence of the universe).
  • Our best guess is that chordates evolved at least 558 million years ago (again, over 13 billion years into the existence of the universe).
  • Mammals evolved about 225 million years ago (according to a traditional definition) or 167 million years ago (according to a more recent definition), either 13.57 billion years into the existence of the universe or 13.63 billion years into the existence of the universe.
  • Primates evolved about 65 million years ago (or 13.734 billion years into the history of the universe).
  • Haplorhini (“dry-nosed” primates) evolved about 63 million years ago (or 13.736 billion years into the existence of the universe).
  • Simians evolved about 60 million years ago (or 13.739 billion years into the history of the universe).
  • Catarrhini (apes and “old world monkeys) evolved about 40 million years ago (or 13.759 billion years into the existence of the universe).
  • Apes evolved around 25 million years ago (or 13.774 billion years into the history of the universe – this is so recent as to be almost less than the mathematical error of 20 million years around the estimated age of the universe).
  • Homo (humanoids) evolved between 10 and 2 million years ago (the consensus is around 2.865 million years ago or 13.796 billion years into the existence of the universe) and some of these species likely developed social learning and language before the evolution of Homo Sapiens.
  • Homo Sapiens (humans) evolved about 195,000 years ago (or 13.799 billion years into the history of the universe)
  • So, the first humans or humanoids possibly thought about gods or god approximately 13.796-13.799 billion years into the existence of the universe, at the very earliest.

My question, then, is this:

  1. Did the entity that created the universe wait approximately 13,796,000,000-13,799,000,000 billion years to inform humanoids or humans of its existence, in the most cryptic way possible, at a time when the universe was so large we could never contact any other possible life in the universe? OR,
  2. Did human beings evolve with the need for explanations and invent gods to explain our existence?

If you agree with the scientific consensus, I cannot understand how you can seriously answer this question with the first answer.

If you don’t agree with the science, you are wrong but there is no way you will ever be convinced of the truth of the science.

Periodically I read something that reminds me that the vast majority of people still believe in an anthropocentric deity (God/Jahveh/Allah/what have you) or deities despite all evidence to the contrary. Most days I am accepting of this as reality but, every so often, my brain cannot get over it. Today was such a day.

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