Religion
In reply to the discussion: Atheists Still Waiting for the Origin-of-Life Messiah [View all]cpwm17
(3,829 posts)"It's a brute fact of nature that dumb matter and energy exist. It seems likely that they have always existed, in some form or another."
I don't claim to know any specifics, which are unknowable, but it seems likely our Universe (I define Universe to be our 13.8 billion year universe) came from a previous reality or at least another reality if time doesn't exist there. Our Universe didn't start from scratch.
I also think it's likely there are many universes beyond our own that came from the same physics that created our universe. This reality has never not existed.
A god is a specific, extremely far-fetched claim. There is no evidence for any god. From what we know, nature behaves as if it works through natural processes. That's why science consistently works,
There are a lot of natural disasters and misery in nature, often by design: earthquakes, predators that eat victims alive or use pain inducing venom to stun their victims, people born into hopeless situations beyond their control, childhood cancer, etc.