• Why do matter and energy exist? - Where did they come from? 

Scientific theories about the origin of the universe have to assume the initial existence of some kind of energy and law of nature - (eg: wave function of the Universe - Stephen Hawking’s phrase) - an energy, law of nature that led to matter, space-time, laws of physics in the big bang. (If there really was a big-bang.) 
But scientific theories cannot explain how the initial energy/laws of nature came to exist or why they exist or did exist.

If God exists why does He exist?
Whether or not God exists we are face to face with the mystery: Why does anything exist at all? 

– Stephen Hawking: "Why does the universe go to all the bother of existing?" 

– JJC Smart (atheist philosopher): "Why should anything exist at all? - it is for me a matter of the deepest awe."

• Why, too, do beauty and goodness exist? 

If beauty and goodness are merely the result of the subjective feelings of individuals or a society, then they have no intrinsic value. They could never be the topic of rational argument. That is to say one could never argue that this is better or more moral or more beautiful than that. For individuals it would be a private opinion only. For societies it would just be the result of their cultural development. There would be no way of deciding that a society which believed in canibalism or slavery (say) was inferior to one that rejected these. Even the presumed value of human life (together with 'human rights') would have no rational basis. We would only value it because we felt like it at the time (or if we felt like it). 
We would have to abandon all Ethics committees. There could be no real concepts of justice. Politics could only be about gaining and holding on to power.

Nevertheless most people realise that beauty and goodness are indeed real in themselves. 
However one cannot prove from science that such and such a thing is more or less good or beautiful than something else. 
Science tells us what is the case not what ought to be the case. Thus science cannot tell us about right and wrong. It may, one day, be able to tell us what went on in Hitler's brain but it cannot tell us that what he did was evil.

• Some believe the questions: 'What is life?' and 'What is consciousness?'

• What about our minds?

If a neuroscientist of the future could discover everything about every atom in my brain would he know:

What I am thinking about? 
No surely not! 
(He might see the effects of my thinking but that is different.)

That means he could not know my mind.

So although  mind and brain obviously need one another they are not the same. 

So where is my mind? That is another fundamental mystery.

• Could the neuroscientist of the future, by examining my brain, know what it is like to be me? 

Would he know my experience of me as 'I'? Surely not. 
So he could not by science discover my true self which certainly exists and is the main initiator of my thoughts and actions. 
What is the 'self'? Another mystery! 
So 'who am I? ' is a fundamental mystery.

The existence of personal beings such as you and me must mean that the source of the mystery cannot be less than us and therefore cannot be mere blind matter/energy. He (we dare no longer call this source 'it') must be personal. 

However imperfectly, we all know something of the meaning of 'love'. He (who cannot be less than us) must be very great and everlasting love. Love is self-giving.

Another mystery facing  us all is the existence of the opposite of goodness and beauty - the sheer evil, injustice, death, sorrow and ugliness of so much of life.

We all have a share in goodness and evil.

Humans possess greatness and wretchedness at the same time.

How do we bring the existence of goodness and evil together? 

We cannot, by our own reasoning bring them together. However the Gospel of Christ does make coherent sense of the mystery of the human experience. We could never prove the gospel but all other ways of trying to understand the world are, ultimately, incoherent.

Fundamental to the Gospel is the belief that God has not remained distant from suffering and evil, but carried its terrible weight in the Person of Jesus in whom all things hold together. Out of His death on the Cross came the Resurrection and glory which enfolds us all. 

In this life we choose whether to accept or reject this eternal love. Our decision has eternal consequences.

In the teaching and miracles of Jesus we are given a foretaste of the world's redemption - a redemption fully accomplished in his death and resurrection. 
It was on the cross that our Creator's great self-giving love and wisdom were fully shown. 

There we find our true selves and our true humanity.

Pascal again:
"For a religion to be true it must have known our nature; it must have known its greatness and smallness, and the reason for both. What other religion but Christianity has known this?" (Pensees, 215)

Sometimes I am tempted to think so, because it too contains its own mystery and awe. 
But is there another way to understand the existence of: the universe, the world, human lives, beauty, goodness and evil? 

In the death and resurrection of Jesus we see the eternal self-giving love of God. 
Although it happened about 2000 years ago about 2000 miles from where I am writing this, it nevertheless spans the whole of time and the whole of the world. 

The Bible is the story of its beginning, its progress, its fulfillment in Jesus and then its final culmination at the end of the age.

As we read the Bible, opening our hearts in prayer to God's love, we find a reality beyond this world so that our life in this world is given forgiveness, meaning and purpose. 

May that be true for all who read this!  (For Bible texts explaning the faith of Christ - click here.)

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