I find it even less satisfying than plugging knowledge gaps with "god" stuffing. Unexplained phenomenon from the past? Aliens did it, and you know, they work in

I find it even less satisfying than plugging knowledge gaps with "god" stuffing. Unexplained phenomenon from the past? Aliens did it, and you know, they work in mysterious ways. At least with a god, you get a complete origin(1). With aliens, you just punt the "how did life originate?" question to a galaxy far, far away. Its hella good fun for a few episodes of Stargate, but somewhat lacking as a cosmology. (1) As long as you are prepared to deal with the "where/how did your god originate?" part.