Creation Myths Come in Many Forms.

[MineralMan]

13. But, time may not exist except within the physical universe.

So, the very concept of something "before the universe existed" is meaningless. Lights out. Lights on. When the light comes on, photons stream from it. When it is off, though, do those photons even exist? Where were they? I see the universe like that - like a single photon. Where was it before? Does that even matter?

For me, the entire metaphysical discussion about existence is meaningless. There was no "beginning" of the physical universe, because it's impossible to talk about a state where there was no physical universe.

I think what we may possibly discover, eventually, is that the physical universe we can experience is just a local manifestation of something much larger that we cannot experience. That is my instinct for where this exploration is going, frankly, and others are hypothesizing about that as well.

For me, it is of no consequence. I do and will occupy only a very brief, insignificant moment.