I'm reminded of a rare incident near my house, and I say rare because there are new housing developments nearby with expensive homes and lush vegetation at the center and sides of the street that needs to be attended to weekly by city-hired gardeners. I saw a HOMELESS WOMAN set up shop right near the entrance of a church! By set up shop, I mean she held a placard hoping for help from the church-going folks. She probably got some money, but I wonder what the church going people think. Maybe they hope to give her a few bucks, then she never comes back, or, worse yet, bring more homeless people to beg! No, actually worse would be if she requested to LIVE IN the church when it's not being used on the weekdays. How many Christians would agree to that? From the homeless woman's perspective that would be a sweet little arrangement. Live in the Church on weekdays, then do her business on Sundays right outside the parking lot. Btw, everyone knows we need to have homeless shelters, landfills, and strip clubs, but it's always a NIMBY situation.
Yes, man created religion(s) to worship their God(s). Human beings, being what we are, will believe that our belief is the right one. Some human beings will try to impose that belief upon others, forcefully if necessary. In a world that is often cruel, unfair and unjust, some people hope a better place exists for the good, and a worse one for the bad. Is that likely? Probably not, but who really knows for sure? None of that has anything to do with the mystery of creation. Did a God come first and create a universe? Did a universe come first and evolve into something more? I don't know, and neither do any of you. On the subject of creation absolute certainty is not attainable at this moment in time. Perhaps it will be someday, but that day is not yet upon us. What I believe is that something is going on that we do not fully understand, and that's being generous. Frankly, we don't have a f'n clue as to the why of it all, and have barely scratched the surface as to the how. I am content to let people believe as they will and seek the truth wherever that truth may take me. It's an interesting journey and you might find it more interesting yourselves if you weren't so concerned with being right. Just my 2 cents
Ah, but the universe has become self aware, through us. We are the universe having become self aware. And no doubt that other intelligent beings in it are even more aware than we are. It's quite remarkable when one thinks that the universe in a sense has evolved into us. We are only possible because stars made the elements of which we are composed. It took 3.5 billion years for us to assemble from these raw elements on early earth. We pulled ourselves out of the mud millions of years ago and along with every living thing on the planet we came from the same amazing first protocells. All these things are our relatives. Please, don't insult me by saying that some old, cantankerous, mean old guy in the sky snapped his fingers on the sixth day and made me. We are magical, but were not made by some magic trick.
It does seem unlikely that all was created in a week, but I have no issue with those that believe that so long as they do not force that belief system on me. You're theory on self awareness is one of many possibilities. I like the idea of a living, ever evolving universe, but that does not answer the question of why, or what actually happened at the very instant of creation. Perhaps there is no reason as to why. Can the universe as it has evolved actually reason and think for itself aside form any other life form? Is it possible that this happened before life as we know it began to evolve? Were we created for a reason, or is our existence just the logical order of creation? Good science will continue to ask the what if questions. Nothing wrong with being continually curious.