If this question has been bothering you then you’ll be pleased to know that, in the space of this 5-minute read, you’re going to finally get the answer.

I know, it’s amazing, isn’t it? All that effort expended over the centuries, and then the answer comes, without fanfare, in a random blog post, that perhaps only you will read. Surely, it’s one of God’s little jokes?

The answer revealed. At last.

Not so fast. Be patient. It’s only another few paragraphs until you can relax in the knowledge that has confounded humans since the dawn of time. But first, a little history.

So, we haven’t quite nailed this one to date. Everyone seems to have piled in with gods everywhere you looked. As early tribes, we saw gods in mountains, trees, the sky, the earth, the sea, the weather, fire, animals, you name it.

And then the Abrahamic faiths hooked onto the idea that every god that had, until then, been deemed to exist, actually hadn’t.

Wait, it’s coming…

No, all those gods since the dawn of time had just been made up. They were merely figments of our imagination. However, it turned out there was one god. In fact, we’ll give this god a capital, we’re so sure: God.

From here on in, apart from a few notable outliers, humanity became convinced there was one God. We couldn’t absolutely agree on a name, but as this is an English language blog, we’ll call him (it? her? don’t be crazy) God.

Then some humans thought some more and came to a new realization: there were in fact not loads of gods, nor even one God. In truth, there were no gods or God at all. The existence we had pinned everything on had been a lie.

OK, you’ve been patient…reward time.

Of course, that wasn’t the end of the discussion. In fact, the heated question of whether God or gods exist has continued with much energy to the very present moment.

But wait…

Let’s think about this for a moment: if God or gods do not exist, then our deciding they did, then deciding they didn’t, but one did, then speculating that maybe that one didn’t after all, then becoming adamant that it didn’t, and then getting cold feet again, would have what effect?

None whatsoever. In a godless universe, everything was just as it was, apart from what went on in our human minds.

And let’s invert that: if God or gods do exist, then our deciding they did, then deciding they didn’t, but one did, then speculating that maybe that one didn’t after all, then becoming adamant that it didn’t, and then getting cold feet again, would have what effect?

None whatsoever. In God-filled universe, everything was just as it was, apart from what went on in our human minds.

So, the answer, perhaps frustratingly for those of you who have ploughed doggedly on with this blog in the hope of a big win, is that the answer is irrelevant. 

The true state of things is unaffected by the vagaries of such questions existing in my mind or any other human mind that may be engaging with this question. 

And so, the pertinent question becomes: to what extent does what we believe matter to the existence of the universe? And if it doesn’t really matter one iota, then we can all relax, and go on believing whatever we each choose to believe, safe in the knowledge that it won’t make any difference. 

And if that was too much God for one day, what you need is some cricket: Tailenders make cricket great.