A generation or so ago, our universe was thought by many then, brilliant scientists to be a closed system that had neither beginning nor end. The existence of the cosmos was regarded as a "brute fact" and needed nothing to produce it. The modern and well-nigh universally accepted by the new brilliant scientists theory of the big bang changed all that.

If the universe did have a beginning, it becomes not only reasonable
but also unavoidable that we would ask what generated that beginning.
Now, however, we have left physics (i.e., how nature works) for
meta-physics (i.e., why nature exists at all).

This is the point at which a theist calls attention to a traditional
and powerful argument for God's existence. If the material universe has
not existed forever, the possibilities are limited. Either it somehow
called itself into being or was brought into being by an eternal
Creative God. From Plato to Polkinghorne, Aristotle to Aquinas, Darwin
to Davies, this argument has been offered.

In his recently released book "The Grand Design," Stephen Hawking gives
this answer:

As recent advances in cosmology suggest, the laws of gravity and
quantum theory allow universes to appear spontaneously from
nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something
rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist. It is
not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set
the universe going.

Something has existed forever.

Hawking insists the "laws of gravity" and "quantum mechanics" explain
how something comes from nothing. But, gravity cannot be defined
without mass and quantum mechanics accounts for certain interactions
between energy and matter. Both have demonstrated value for
understanding how existing things function; neither has obvious value
to account for the origin of those things.

We need not pretend that ultimate questions such as Hawking raises are
too profound for "ordinary souls" to contemplate; they are central to
defining oneself and deciding on the value and meaning of one's life.
Neither should we pretend that statements such as "something can come
from nothing" or "life arose spontaneously and inevitably produced
intelligent human life" is somehow plausible because spoken by a
brilliant physicist; both are un-demonstrated theories that deny the
more obvious and direct conclusion of a Grand Designer.

If there had ever been a time when absolutely nothing existed, nothing
could exist now. Since something clearly has existed forever, you take
your pick: Person or matter, Intelligence or gravity, Creative God or
quantum mechanics.

To say the least, the following thesis is reasonable: "In the
beginning, God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1)