Could the universe have been created for no reason?

First of all, the demonstrative pronoun is "there". "Their" is a possessive pronoun. And "no" is a negative particle -- to believe something that is a fact is "know".Welcome to EvC.- Well, in a sense this is true: since there was no time "before" the universe existed, then there was no "before" before the universe. Hence, for any time you can specify, the universe existed. Yet, the universe probably has only existed for a finite amount of time. Is that a mind blower or what?- This may be unanswerable in principle. "How" implies processes but I don't see how there could be a "process" before the universe itself existed. But this whole topic is a pretty bizarre one -- personally, I don't think we even have the proper concepts in place to begin to discuss it.- How is not knowing something a weakness? I don't know anything about how my ancestors arrived to North America. Yet I have a pretty detailed history of their travel from Ohio to Kansas to Oregon to Alaska during the 20th century. Just because you don't know some single detail doesn't mean that you don't know anything at all.At any rate, I don't think it's possible to know why or how the universe came to exist -- I don't think that the questions even make any sense. Me, I think the universe simply exists -- it poses fewer conceptual difficulties than any of the alternatives.

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If I had a million dollars, I'd buy you a monkey.
Haven't you always wanted a monkey?
-- The Barenaked Ladies

May I ask a question? Why isn't this enough? I mean, I can understand being curious about the origin of the universe, but why should the inability to answer the question be a source of discomfort?I can't even make sense of the question, "How did the universe begin?" So I just accept that it does.

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If I had a million dollars, I'd buy you a monkey.
Haven't you always wanted a monkey?
-- The Barenaked Ladies

That's fine. It's just that when Christians come onto this site asking those questions, 9 times out of 10 they are thinking that they've managed to disprove atheism and modern cosmology once and for all (and they rarely even care about what atheists views really are -- in fact, they are convinced that they already know all there is to know about atheists). So when someone comes around asking these very same questions, we kind of just assume she is one of those types.But if you are really curious about what atheists think, you're going to have to ask each and every atheist -- an atheist is just someone who believes that no gods exist. Other than that, there is no standard dogma, and a lot of people have different views on different things. This is especially true about cosmology and Big Bang, which your typical atheist doesn't understand any better than your typical Christian.So, for this particular atheist's views:I don't know how the universe began.I don't even think the question makes sense -- I don't believe anyone has really constructed the concepts necessary to even discuss this rationally.I just say that the universe simply exists, mostly because I can't conceive of any other alternative.

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If I had a million dollars, I'd buy you a monkey.
Haven't you always wanted a monkey?
-- The Barenaked Ladies

We do have a word for non-lawyers, and, in fact, you (and I) just used it.

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If I had a million dollars, I'd buy you a monkey.
Haven't you always wanted a monkey?
-- The Barenaked Ladies

Well, you can dispute all you want.Basically, the meaning of a word is how people actually use it.When I use the word, I mean someone who does not believe that a god exists. I could be wrong, but I think that is what CJ means when he is using the word. In fact, it is what the word means whenever it has been used by anyone with whom I have discussed atheism. So we all understand what the other is saying; we are communicating effectively. The word is doing exactly what it is supposed to do -- it is facilitating communication.

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If I had a million dollars, I'd buy you a monkey.
Haven't you always wanted a monkey?
-- The Barenaked Ladies