The big bang or another greater force that acted to kick things off.

Reality manifests the day we're born. The "conditions" of the world then interpret our understanding of how the universe began.

Purely a question for physicists.

Nobody knows and I am at peace with not knowing.

When God (which is all of us) decided to fracture herself into a material existence from whatever she was before.

Our current universe began from The Original Essence of Measure which can be described as The Black Sun or The Light Shadow

The Universe always was. No beginning, no end.

There are only two possible outcomes for us: we will either die out as a species or survive. Given the tiny amount of time we have existed as a species, and the unpredictability of the universe, I would guess that we will eventually cease to exist, either by natural forces or by taking care of it ourselves. This could happen in a thousand years, or a million years. In the short time we will survive as a technoevolution of ourselves, enhancing our features and capabilities artificially to the point where we no longer look like the humans of today. Where we take it from there is pure imagination.

This is obviously a tough question, as neither science nor religion have convinced me yet. I believe empirical evidence, so in the lack of such evidence I must ask myself (and you) on the prevalent theories: - Do you believe in the big bang? Did a big explosion happen from nothing? How does this reconcile with the laws of matter and thermodynamics? - Do you believe in God? If God created the universe, how was God created? Was he created at all? How can something that exists not have a beginning? I believe everything starts from something, so I have a hard time siding with either of these theories. Is it possible for the universe to always have existed, just evolved? How do we reconcile this with the linearity of time? I just wrote a lot to basically say: I dont know the answer to this one, and I havent formulated my own theory yet. If we havent been able to answer this questions in homo sapiens' entire existence, I doubt we will answer it before some kind of empirical evidence surfaces.

I'm not sure this is something we can answer. . . but I do imagine that whatever the answer is, it would amount to a great knitting together of all the fables and scientific versions we have so far. There is something in us, deep in our souls, that might know or remember in some way and I think that creeps out into our stories.

When I was born. It was a bloody good time!

I believe in the big bang theory. There was nothing (or not even nothing) and then there was something.

With the first cause.

I am not sure if it did begin. I think perhaps it has always been here in some form or another. In the way we perceive it? It emerged slowly with the evolution of our eyes, ears, tongues, noses, and skin.

With a desire to improve on what was already happening

God spoke.

Around 6,000 years ago, the first decision was made, creating a point of duality, which resulted in the instantaneous expansion of our universe. Since then, an infinite number of universes have popped into existence. It’s a real mess.

Amethysts and other shiny jewels.

With God's will (and probably with some help from astrophysics and things I know nothing about)

This might be one of the final unanswered questions. And how do we know it even does begin? Or end? Something without beginning or end is unfathomable to us humans, whose perception is reliant on finite stretches of time. Once we die and roll back into the infinite source energy, we might find out.

With the first primordial perceptions. And it grew more complex and organisms grew more complex tools to perceive.

Ceiling cat creator of all things.

It was just a boom. Or was it a bang?

As soup, primordial or otherwise.

As part of an eternal, timeless and universal cycle of death and rebirth.

We know about the Big Bang and we think something earlier, and since there was time and space, the Universe must have begun from the durable interplay of those two.

The mystery of the beginning of all things is insoluble by us—and I for one must be content to remain an agnostic.

Universe started from a simple thought letting human build amazing things.

I dunno. I am not a physicist. However, the science of Physics seems to be operating on the assumption that the same physical laws that we know are present throughout the universe. Maybe so, maybe not.

The probability become so heavy and abundant, that not existing become unbearable. Thus the World happened. The transition from possibility to the reality was so smooth that nobody can pinpoint it so far.

With a big bang. But what happened before the bang is a mystery.

Pick a metaphor. Traditional choices are -object made or -physiologic function -breathing, thinking, sex- by one or more progenitors. Recent science-y explanation seems to be a traditional choice from the pov event.

So we settled for an answer in this question that it did begin? Astrophysicists have some idea how it evolved, but explaining Big Bang and singularity is beyond us. Is explaining HOW an answer to WHY, any way? No, I do not prophesy outside agency.

Diving imagination?

I like to think it was some sort of a meet-cute set up in a Rom Com. Only between two atoms that then exploded.

The physical universe was created from nothing by a uncaused being who is outside of our current space time dimension.

Maybe there was no beginning, if it was always there and always will be, just in different forms.

That is still an unanswered question.

Birth, mom, dad, twin, siblings, the floor, the rug, outside, rain, dirt, salamanders, other kids, the car, then words.

From the smallest spore to the largest star, all began by the yearning of matter and non-matter for meaning and definition.

Everything in the universe started as small as a piece of dust and continued to expand with the big bang, giving birth to greater mass and space.

Human at this point of time lacks the cognitive ability/intelligence to grasp this idea. it is possible that the human linquistic products are less relevant, perhaps, to the nature itself.

The great mystery is only through profound introversion this question can be answered.

Cyclical in general. Current from big bang, or kun yafaqoon (ie: Be and it became). Ultimately...no one knows.

Like Drake - Started from the bottom, now it's here.

We do not know yet, nothing wrong in stating that we do not either. Conjecture is the best we have so far and that is not very convincing.

The universe to me is what I know, and what I know started thanks to my mom and dad. That's how the universe began.

It never did. The beginning is just a useful language construction. Thinking about how Universe begin is, on the contrary, NOT useful. But surely a great subject for centuries of narratives. Narratives ARE useful. Paradoxes from the beginning.

Necessity is the mother of invention.

Lonely and bored, God decided to make a movie.

A bunch of stuff collided then expanded. 

Space dust exploded after billions of years of atmospheric implosion. The shattered dust particles from the explosion are our planets.

Why assume it began?

All universes begin with awareness. When one becomes aware of their surroundings, their universe begins.

People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion. 

Which one? They are all in cycles of forming and collapsing. It just goes on and on like my sister-in-law on the phone

The universe began with a single spark that suddenly exploded into complexity. It's been growing more complex ever since. The question I have - why? And how?

Logos-word/rational principle/order

My universe began with my conception! It's in my continued learning!

Oh, Great Space Manatee, Creator Of ALL Things, You live in all our hearts, mightier than queens and kings!