The universe does not have a beginning, nor a finite end for that matter, but is a continuum of cycles; birth, maturation, decay/death and rebirth.
If you only look at the state of the ‘universe’ from the myopic view of the here and now you might come to the conclusion that it is an end in and of itself. But this belies the possibilities offered by data that there are either endless ‘universes’ and our one is but a bubble in a whole matrix of universes, constantly born and destroyed, or that our one and only universe is in a cyclical mode which closes in on itself and will be reborn at some stage.
Since, in a single universe of the ‘biblical kind’, there was neither space nor time before the Big Bang, a God would find it somewhat difficult to locate himself in the nowhere and make up his recipe for the universe he’s about to ‘crate’.
As always and everywhere in nature, everything is by trial and error, so with universes, the exact finetuning of the forces to make this universe and life as we know it may be just a trial and error of infinite universe creations till it got it just ‘right’, like this one. The Anthropic Principle allows for the same failure rates and trial and error as everywhere in nature; not every seed will mature into its full potential, not every planet will bear intelligent life, not every person will be an Einstein and not every universe shall be teeming with stars, planets and life.
Yes it is difficult to accept anything outside the simplistic, comforting narrative of an almighty God who created and takes care of everything and is the ultimate arbiter of every tiny aspect of every single organism and grain of dust in the entire universe.
It’s just that there is a mountain of evidence, and even philosophically compelling reasoning if you’re so inclined, that there is no need for a god nor is there a possibility of such an entity having come up with this ‘one and only universe’.
Science has moved on and even a lot of scientists fail to keep up with new evidence and insights into the nature of reality.
