So in the beginning, with the singularity at the beginning of time, there was pure "energy" without form.
This energy has been neither created nor destroyed since the "Big Bang", it has simply taken form and then transformed within the system.
Hence, the history of the universe is a process of transformation into an increasingly complex ORGANIZED system.
The direction of that transformation we know has become governed by the unfolding laws of physics and nature over time when it comes to motion and relations between "things". This is true both macroscopically (stars, planets, water, etc.) and microscopically (intracellular, DNA, etc.).
In terms of the extremely larger consider the following:
"It would be very difficult to explain why the universe should have begun in just this way, except as the act of a God who intended to create beings like us." - Stephen Hawking, 'A Brief History of Time', p.127
In terms of the extremely small, consider the following:
You have to understand the paradox of the universe. The universe can only exist if there are sentient beings (consciousness) able to observe it. If there are no sentient beings, then the universe exists as a wave, without any form or structure. Only after sentient beings observe the universe does the wave collapse into the beautiful firmament of stars, planets, galaxies, quasars, etc. Thus, the single most important thing for life to exist is a universe that provides the right quantum laws that allow for sentient beings to evolve. That is, the gravitation strength is this and the strong force is that and the weak force is this and the electromagnetic force is that. If any of the four forces deviate by a slight bit, then the conditions of the quantum laws will not be correct for life to exist. It is the precise tuning of our laws of quantum mechanics that is the most important factor to create sentient life. (source)
But what shaped the laws of the universe? What has the system organized for? And how did the motion of "things", the process of transformation over time, lead to incredibly well-organized sentient creatures like ourselves to perceive and examine the universe in which we emerged?
"We got lucky", does not cut it for an answer and is statistically nonsensical. (One wonders why such a view has become popular when so clearly unreasonable, but I guess that's part of the "secular" subjectivism of the day. There's no room for God in a universe man wants to control.)
As human beings, our consciousness is always now, i.e., caught between the past and the future.
In this context, we act as "choosers", i.e., we direct motion, determine the relationships, between the past and the future. So for us it should be obvious what the source of the direction of transformation is: consciousness. (What we experience as consciousness, i.e., the "I"). I do not believe that such direction started with human beings, or even with sentient, self-directing life forms (although
the latter may constitute everything).
If God is the Alpha and the Omega, then universal consciousness, of which our individual consciousness is a part, is the Delta IMHO - the point of change over time between the beginning and the end that determines what "work" the transformative energy of the universe will do.
Human beings act in the middle of, and forge new laws for, the flow between the past and the future.
This can be in the form of how we manipulate our environment to serve our purposes (tools and technologies, which means everything from power plants to toilet paper, are developed by us in transforming our environment to serve our needs and wants - this is our "work"). This can be in the form of the rules of conduct we set for ourselves. In so doing this we are inadvertently creating a new increasingly conscious being, i.e., global society. Of course, our individual consciousnesses are intertwined with this new being as collective consciousness. This collective consciousness, in turn, chooses the direction of the new social being into the future. (This occurs at many levels, from the household to the community to the nation to the world.) The emergent technologies that our personal design and collective will has shaped has led to higher and higher levels of inter-connectivity and interdependence thus "collective thought and choice" becoming better tuned to our shared environment. In this sense, humankind is now a sentient, conscious being in its own right and we are comparable to cells within the organism, i.e., the higher life form of society as-a-whole.
Of course, this logic can be applied in reverse as well. After all, the formation of galaxies, stars, elements, planets, reproductive biological organisms, etc., all fed into the realization of us and our current consciousness. That consciousness is intertwined with all the ingredients that comprise human life forms. After all, we are effectively animated stardust.
Now, here's the rub.
I believe the animator is not the animated (animal). Consciousness is not the perceiver.
This means that that which is "I", our conscious being, is immaterial....it is not a function of our flesh and, in a sense, is not really "here".
The evidence of this is pretty clear with regard to near-death experiences and reincarnation.
When human bodies die, the associated consciousness continues to exist.
This is explained by this model.
What's more, this hypothesis explains how the transformation of the universe has led to human beings so efficiently. At any given moment in time in the history of the universe, there has been a collective consciousness directing the course of change. But how was information perceived and used to shape collective choice between the past and the future before complex biological life forms like ourselves existed?
Are energy forms 'sentient beings' at the quantum level? What would have constituted a "better" future relative to the past, i.e., better relative to what, at each point along the time line of universal transformation?
Also, do changes to our bodies affect changes to our conscious being, e.g., drugs, brain damage, etc. Thus, changes in the animated (animal) affect the animator, so maybe this is all wrong. Which comes first, the animator or the animated. The evidence suggests the former....consciousness is derived from the Prime Mover.
Back to the drawing board...