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I always thought the most plausible explanation is one developed Terry Pratchett in "Strata":

If you are going to create a planet (or universe) from scratch to be the home of an intelligent species, including a realistic history is critical to give that species sufficient historical context to learn about how things work.

Understanding evolution and biology is a lot harder if you have no fossil record. Understanding plate tectonics is a lot harder if you don't have a consitent geologix record. Understanding physics is a lot harder if you don't have a light coming in from events that predates the creation of the universe.

Thus if you grant that the universe was created 7000 years ago with a huge, detailed and consistent history, the clear implication to me is that we are intended to study that history to understand the universe in which we exist.



Some people do in fact believe this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omphalos_hypothesis


This reminds me of being a teen and getting my mind blown when a friend of mine said, "You can't prove that you didn't just start existing right now. Who's to say that all of the memories of your entire life were all implanted in your head to make you think the universe didn't start right now."


Many of PKD's stories are about identity and memories, subjects just like that. And several of those stories have been adapted into film/TV.




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