Do you believe; and why?

[Dill]

(05-08-2019, 03:36 PM)hollodero Wrote: Not that it contributes anything substantial, but mass can be "destroyed". The sun does it, emitting energy in the process. It also can be created out of energy.

There are theories the universe is merely a quantum fluctuation created out of nothing, much like positrons and electrons can be created out of "nothing". This probably isn't true - but the fact that we can't quite grasp the beginning of the universe to me doesn't necessarily mean it was a god creating it. This just shifts the problem to "...and if it was a god, how was god created?"

Er, the sun isn't just "emitting," energy; it is converting mass TO energy, right? Some of which is converted back to biomass on earth, for example. Water which evaporates isn't "destroyed." 

regarding your second point, I find the Greek (pre-Socratic) assumption that something has always existed, rather than nothing, easier to accept.  It is just conceptually easier to suppose matter always existed than that it had to be created. The latter seems more like something humans need for their own conceptual reality to make sense.