God, Aliens, and Other Stuff

Is the universe dangerous or benevolent? I had a discussion with my family once about whether the universe was basically benevolent or dangerous. My United Methodist mother-in-law and my Unitarian sister-in-law voted for benevolent, because they have always been nice people and feel blessed and protected. They are projecting their world view and experience into a cosmic philosophy. They've never been shot or raped or robbed at knife point.  I took the opposite view because, although I haven't personally experienced the above crimes, I'm aware how fortunate I am that I haven't, and I attribute a most of my good fortune to having been religious in one way or another most of my life, meaning I also feel blessed and protected, but some of that is cultural. I've never lived in a high crime area. I also believe that, although God does not spare Christians all loss, pain, and grief, our lot could be a lot worse without His presence in our lives. We talked about demons and ...