[yendu bwam]

That's the thing I don't get..."E" people are willing to go along with the "big bang" which demands that there is "something" beyond our universe, a precursor if you will, but refuse to acknowlege anything but the "material." How?

None of us can prove or show what preceded the Big Bang. Some scientists believe that it all came from nothing (but if so, how?). But it's just as possible that there is an intelligent and powerful force that brought the big bang into existence. Interestingly, the universe, as it was created, was at an enormously low entropy (very, very highly ordered). The odds of it being that way, based on all possible configurations, are something like 1 in 10 to the 133 power (a number higher than that measuring all the atoms in the universe). Thus we are either extraordinarily lucky. Or something else was in play...

[Dimensio]

As I've said before, in the abscence of knowledge I prefer to assume nothing. Yes, maybe it was a "God" who created the universe as to host life on a single blue-green planet in the far corner of a spiral galaxy, and perhaps this "God" specifically created it all for a single species descended from primates (or at the very least has the incredible appearance thereof), set out a specific set of rules that must be followed in order for the consciousness of those primate-descended creatures to spend eternity with "Him" after the death of the body and sent "His only Son" to die for the transgressions of those primate-descended creatures because there was no way for them to meet "His" standards on their own. Then again, maybe it was some entity who was bored one day and just created a life-supporting universe for the hell of it. This entity watched life appear and grow for a few eons, then got bored and left its universe running while it went off to do something more productive.