Did the Big Bang create God or did God create the Big Bang?

[qazplm135]

47. I don't know that we'd be adding an extra layer

how did the universe start?

There's really only three options:

1. It didn't start. It's always been going on. (some version of cyclical universes/can also merge in the Big Bang in some theories (e.g. Brane Theory)).
2. It started from nothing. (Classical Big Bang) Simple random physics caused it.
3. It started from some outside force. (Could be Brane theory with the outside force being the branes collapsing together, could be a black hole formed in another universe). Could this involve intelligence in another "universe?" Theoretically.

Each of these theories has it's own unanswerable issues/questions/problems. I don't think there's anything wrong with speculating on it, so long as the understanding that we probably never find a way to test any particular theory (or even if we could find some way, probably not enough to reach any level of certainty).

Gravity's weird values might be explained by leaking into other universes or across branes. But I suspect we will never prove it. We could be the inside of a black hole, but I suspect we will never prove it.

But at not crazy thought experiments? No problem IMO.