Last I read, string theory was using 26 dimensions to duct tape the whole thing together. Bit excessive, that, but could turn out to be true.

I don't think an inelegant universe makes a case for or against an universal creator. Those who believe, believe. Those who don't believe, don't believe.

The idea of the multiverse is pretty well established at this point, particularly in regards to dark matter and energy. The problem with a GUT may be that there it can't be expressed without factoring in the other universes. Since we're stuck in this one (at least till someone actually crosses an event horizon, and then they ain't coming back) we may never be able to complete the theory. Other than by duct-taping some constants into the equation.

I don't see why the universe should necessarily be elegant. Life isn't elegant, why should the universe be so? Could be a cobbled together mishmash, a cosmic Rube Goldberg contraption. Newtonian physics works wonderfully in our frame of reference, but falls down on both a macro and micro level. Quantum theory explains some of it, relativity a bit more, string theory tries to tie it together (I didn't see that coming till I typed it).

Our universe could be on release 6.1.1.0 build 0007776_p. It won't all tie together properly till we stop running kernel386 in the backgound.