And what made atoms? They just pop into existence?
Something had to make atoms.
Cheers
https://louisdelmonte.com/virtual-particles-spontaneous-particle-creation/
The energy density from a "black hole" is immense. Mostly in the regime of gravity and fluctuations in space/time due to that density. This in turn causes the exact quantum fluctuations that "create" the energy density required to "spontaneously" pop a particle into existence.
Hawking/Carr were right, but I still think they underplayed the amount of energy a blackhole can exert on a given volume.
What's neat about that to me is that it sets up perfectly for a continually "recycling" Universe rather than the "Big Bang/Big Crunch" silliness.
Of course, I could be an idiot who has read too much science fiction too...