I'll tell you what I think. But I'm not sure I believe it, I learned a long time ago what I think don't mean squat. I've changed my own mind too often to take it very seriously myself, and I've seen too many other people make fools of themselves because they think they've figured it all out. Nobody has it figured out, no matter what they think. But I have a theory, so here it is.

Nothing happens for a reason. Or to put it another way, there may be a reason for everything but there is a purpose to nothing. Nobody's in charge, there is no meaning to anything. Everything is just random chance, a million monkeys pounding on typewriters. Oh sure, there are the laws of physics, they are accurate and precise, eternal and invariable, but they only take care of things like electricity and gravity; you know, bookkeeping. In the real world, the world we really live in, the world of family and emotion and love and death and career, beauty and pain and love, electricity and gravity don't really matter. There is pattern, but no order. We make up the world as we go along, and we all do it differently. I know what I'm talking about, I studied science. Its pretty and interesting and probably very important, but I doubt it really matters much because its constantly being revised and updated.

God? I doubt it. If there ever was one, he did a good job, then packed up his tools and went home. A good architect doesn't need to stick around after he's designed the building. Or maybe he's dead, or maybe he's still on duty, but he hasn't got a clue who we are, or what we want or need. I know there are bacteria living in my gut that help me digest my food, and there's others that live in my yard and help the grass grow, but I really don't care all that much about them. And I probably never will, as long as they do their job. If there's a god out there, he probably feels pretty the same about me.

At any rate, if the Creator and Ruler of the Universe really needs me to do anything, then its up to him to get in touch with me, because I haven't any idea how to get his attention. My number's in the book, if he wants to talk let him call.

Oh, and one more thing. The good are just as likely to suffer as the wicked are to prosper. We all can see that. As far as I'm concerned, that's all you need to know about the Creator and Ruler of the Universe.

Just what do I know? Not much, really. I know there's a real world out there, and I collect imperfect information on it through my senses which I then analyze with my flawed reason and try to store in my bad memory. I also know I can affect this world a little bit with my hands and actions. I suspect (but I can't tell for sure) there are others out there like me, and I can communicate with them, somehow--even the dead ones, I can read their books! The fact that they don't seem to perceive the same universe I do, and that they appear to deal with it differently I find totally baffling. I think that's a very important clue, but not all of them seem to agree.

The universe is a beautiful place, and it seems very complicated. But for us, life is mostly about pain and pleasure, curiosity and boredom, sleep and hunger, love and death. The book of life is very long and printed in very tiny letters, but its written in a language we can't read. And there are no illustrations.