Why do you believe what you believe?

What I am saying is that this idea makes no sense to me whatsoever. If you can explain how something can not exist and then start to exist with no outside help, then do so. NOt at all. I like it.

What made time begin? It must have been something that does not exist in time, like a "god."There's no reason why the universe should have come into existence.

Neither do I. You might as well say that the universe is the creator as that god is. So do I, but there isn't any other explanation if the universe did not always exist.Something beginning without a cause sounds magical to me.

I did not know this, but I'll take your word for it.I understand what you're saying.The choices are:1. the universe came into being "on its own" somehow.
2. a "god" (eternal something or other--"eternal" meaning outside of space-time) caused the universe to come into existence.Both of these possibilities strike me as equally strange and magical.Therefore we can say that it is just as rational to believe in either option. Both are on the same level of strangeness.

Well, ok. Then what caused the Big Bang?

Yes, but my point was that 1.6... seems to think that the statement "the Big Bang caused the universe to exist" solves the problem quite well, thank you, whereas it does nothing of the sort.

My original point on this thread An earlier view was that it was not rational to believe in God. But we can see from the choices of what we have to beleive is that it is just as rational as that the universe came into existence, but was uncaused. Both options are spooky.But to get back to the OP, am I the only one on this forum who was not brought up in a "Christian household"? I lived with my father and I don't think he ever said one single word to me about religion--not one word. He couldn't care less about it. I don't think he had any particular beliefs about these matters. I feel deprived.

If you mean by "a matter of opinion" that it is purely subjective, I don't agree. Some beliefs are more rational than others. For example, it is more rational to believe in TOE than not to believe in it because there is a tremendous amount of evidence that supports it.In regard to the creation of the universe, whether one believes in a self-caused universe or whether one believes in a 'god' beyond time that caused it seems to me equal in terms of rationality. Both beliefs involve a great oddity.