The most important go far beyond those that focus on the kind of issues millions face every day — marriage problems, financial worries, failing health, pain, loneliness, insecurity and depression.

They ask such things as:

‘Why am I here?’

‘Would it matter if I had never been born?’

‘Does life need to have any meaning?’

‘How can I get real satisfaction?’

‘Why should I believe anything?’

‘What happens to me when I die?’

Yet these questions eventually funnel into others that are even deeper: ‘Is there anything beyond “our” universe?’; ‘Are we biological accidents living for a blink of time in a vast and vacant cosmos?’; ‘Is there other (and greater) intelligence elsewhere?’; ‘Is there a theory of everything, or one reality that governs all the others?’

Then comes the ultimate question: Is anybody out there? This booklet explores the issues — and points to the answers.

Dr John Blanchard entered full-time Christian ministry after thirteen years in the Guernsey Civil Service, and is now an internationally known author, teacher and conference speaker. Some eighteen million copies of his publications are in print in over 60 languages.