American culture currently has a fascination in reported sightings of mysterious lights and objects in the night sky. Who is to say whether UFOs exist? Some believe they have seen evidence that extraterrestrial life is visiting earth with their own eyes, while scientists try to disprove this evidence as ridiculously false, such as swamp gases or weather balloons. I have heard some argue that alien life is impossible and other planets do not contain intelligent life because their religion tells them that God created humans on earth and nowhere else. However, the search for the truth behind the mysteries of the world around us, lead by science and reason, is supported by hard evidence and fact. Yet, religion does not need any evidence on its side to make its claims, therefore extreme adherents to some religions may refuse to agree with scientific claims. This discrepancy perpetuates the battle between faith and fact. It will continue as long as religious beliefs are not quantified or substantiated by any scientific findings.
             Religion attempts to answer those questions which are not easily discovered by the human mind observing the world. Science answers questions pertaining to what the world contains yet is mostly limited to the physical world. For those who do not worry about metaphysics, an afterlife or higher being is of no concern when there is so much more to think about in the realm of science. Physicist Stephen Hawking takes a somewhat existential view of the universe and the puzzle of creation when he writes in A Brief History of Time, "The Universe would be completely self contained and not affected by anything outside itself. It would neither be created nor destroyed. It would just BE." i Hawking attempts to convey that there might not be a beginning, and we should not spend all of our lives trying to prove one way or another, but simply to see what there is to discover that we can prove.
             The easiest argument ag...