Do you ever take time to contemplate the big questions? Life, afterlife, the cosmos, the universe? What does it all mean? Every man, woman and child at some point has contemplated this question in one form or another. Usually it comes to us at night, when we are in a quiet moment and looking up to the stars. Perhaps we’re a little sleepy, or maybe we’ve had a few beers. The mind begins to wander. We will stare out at those distant points of light, so unimaginably far away that the best description that comes to mind is “oh, the stars are beautiful tonight”. And we think, “Is there anything out there, is there anything more?”

Thankfully there is a short and simple answer to these questions. No, really. We don’t need Stephen Hawking or Neal deGrasse Tyson to unlock the mysteries of the cosmos. To understand the nature of the universe is about a five-minute read. Because—and this is true—there are only two ways to perceive the universe, and your view will profoundly affect the way you live your life.

The first view is that the universe is infinite and that we are finite. This is relatively easy to comprehend because we do know that the universe is likely billions of years old and we live for an average of 80 years or so with good health. This mindset dictates that since our lives are short and nothing happens after we die, we should make the most of our time right now. How we spend our lives is by our own choice in this view of the universe. 

A few of us choose to spend those years bettering mankind, serving others, giving more than taking. And perhaps as a result the world is better off after we have left our small mark. Really, though, does it matter? But the vast majority in this universe-view live for themselves, taking pleasure where they can, amassing comforts and grabbing at every shiny opportunity. And why shouldn’t we? Life is short, and there are no second chances. Should we make a big mistake, well the universe will scarcely remember us. We were just a hint of a dot on a line that stretches so far as that it disappears over the horizon. 

This view of the universe is depressing, honestly. Whatever you are handed at birth, you make the most you can given your circumstances. Maybe you climb the ladder, make more than your parents, have a family, grow old and buy an RV. Or maybe not. You’ve only got one lifetime, and so if you fail to squeeze it all in, you’re just out of luck. Hopefully cancer or a car wreck or a lightning strike won’t cut things short. But if so, it was all just happenstance. The universe will just keep chugging along. It must not have really needed us anyway.

The second view is that the universe is finite and we are infinite. This view is the more difficult of the two, because it forces you to accept that what God says in the Bible is true. That Someone created all this, and so it is the universe that has a beginning, middle and end. We, on the other hand, are creatures of the soul, designed to live on forever, for life, and afterlife, and for eternity. A universe that is finite, you see, had to have been created for a purpose, and we too as part of that universe, have a reason for being.

In this space, if we choose to spend our years bettering mankind, serving others and giving more than we take—we really have left the world better off. And in God’s economy we will be rewarded for our selflessness. After all, we have an eternity to think about. What happens to us tomorrow pales in comparison to what will happen to us in a hundred billion years. And what happens at that point? Well, the old hymn reminds us we’ve no less days to sing God’s praise than when we first begun. 

This view of the universe is reassuring. No matter what you are handed at birth, or what you make of it in life, there is an eternity awaiting. If you don’t squeeze it all in, then no worries. It doesn’t possibly compare to what happens after life. And if you’re cut short by cancer or a car wreck or a lightning bolt, it was by divine plan, and you’ll just get to the good part a little earlier than the rest of us. We’ll exist in a new heaven and a new earth, and the universe itself will just be a table upon which heaven itself is set. 

Which view do you choose? The analytical mind would say, the first view is the only one that makes sense, because it’s the only one for which there is any physical evidence. But the truth is that both of these views take an equal amount of faith. You see, we were not there at the beginning of the universe, and we can’t see to the end of it, and though we have many great hypotheses to explain what may have happened billions of years ago or a billion years from now, they are just ideas and nothing more.

No, the universe in either case must be taken on faith. And perhaps this is really the core question to ask—in what will you ultimately place your faith? Your view of the universe will enshrine your philosophy as finite or infinite. The very complexity of life, though, demands we consider how very unlikely that the universe would unfold as it has without the active hand of Someone who knew what they were doing. Someone who ordered the cosmos and fashioned the earth. Someone who didn’t wait for a random big bang to set creation in motion but instead started the universe in motion with a phrase—“Let there be light.”

Which view then is accurate? It may surprise you that American astronomer and planetary physicist Robert Jastrow comments of creation and the universe: “Astronomers now find they have painted themselves into a corner because they have proven, by their own methods, that the world began abruptly in an act of creation to which you can trace the seeds of every star, every planet, every living thing in this cosmos and on the earth. And they have found that all this happened as a product of forces they cannot hope to discover. That there are what I or anyone would call supernatural forces at work is now, I think, a scientifically proven fact. At this moment it seems as though science will never be able to raise the curtain on the mystery of creation. For the scientist who has lived by his faith in the power of reason, the story ends like a bad dream. He has scaled the mountains of ignorance; he is about to conquer the highest peak; as he pulls himself over the final rock, he is greeted by a band of theologians who have been sitting there for centuries.”