Despite our best efforts, we still understand very little regarding two fundamental questions in life.  What is the origin of the universe?  What is the origin of life on the planet Earth?  Not having an answer to either of these questions has perplexed and vexed humanity throughout history.  The root of all religions could likely be traced to our attempt to answer these questions without hard evidence.               

The first question, what is the origin of the universe, is probably the most profound mystery in life.  Everyone who has sat through a few science classes in high school remembers the most popular theory regarding the origin of the universe.  Cleverly titled The Big Bang Theory, the theory's premise is that approximately 10 billion years ago, the entire mass of the universe coalesced into a gaseous cloud, which then exploded.  As the mass moved away from the explosion it again coalesced, forming stars and planets.  The theory goes on to speculate that, like a perpetual yo-yo, all of the mass in the universe periodically contracts and expands in an endless cycle.  

This is an interesting theory, but in reality it offers no help in answering the question we are all asking.  Where did the mass that forms all of the matter in the universe come from?  To my knowledge no one has any explanation, beyond faith in the supernatural, as to how the original mass in the universe formed.  We know from physics that matter can be transferred into energy, but matter cannot be created from nothing.

What about the second question?  What is the origin of life on the planet Earth?  Science tells us that all the ingredients for creating life existed in the primordial stew that was once our ancient oceans.  Simulate ancient planet Earth by combining a little heat, carbon dioxide, water, electricity and basic elements and you can form amino acids, the building blocks of DNA, in a test tube.  To my knowledge, however, no one has any explanation for how to convert amino acids into living organisms.  I guess that is the tricky part that once again requires faith in the supernatural. 

Maybe we will never answer these two fundamental questions.  Without answers to these questions, however, the path of humanity will likely always be intertwined with the supernatural, because not having an answer as to our origins is unacceptable to creatures that survive on knowledge.