In the beginning, the earth was without form and void.
Who, or what, beheld such a state? In order for anything to be known to exist, there needs be an observer. A universe without conscious beings is never known to exist, never experienced.
What if our stories of gods, goddesses, saviors, angels, devils, souls, little men and green men, are not just stories of things our ancestors couldn't explain... what if they were accounts of events that, once upon a time, happened to mankind?