What is the Oldest Question in the Universe?

The big question raised by yesterday’s episode of Doctor Who, “Let’s Kill Hitler,” is…what is the question? The Silence, we have been told, are a religious order trying to answer the oldest question in the universe, believing that once they do, “silence will fall.”

The big discussions among Doctor Who fans for the near future will be “What is the oldest question in the universe?” and “What does ‘Silence will fall’ mean?”

All I will say for now is that I hope that the oldest question in the universe is not one the answer to which is “42” and I hope that “Silence will fall” doesn’t mean that once it is answered, they drop from their sleeping position on the ceiling.

What do you think the oldest question in the universe is? What do you think the answer to it might be?

UPDATE: I removed an image which was originally part of this post, which I happened across on Google and could not trace back to its source. The source, I later learned, unfortunately in connection with a request to remove the image, was IMForeman on deviantART. That artist’s page is well worth exploring.