The perceivable universe is perceived by us as a physical phenomenon with a materiality to everything. Now, can this material universe have a materiality that is absolute, independent of our perception? If yes, then that materiality must come out of a bigger materiality, or at least equal materiality. And where does the materiality come from in the first place?
Materiality cannot come from “nothing”. It has to come from materiality or, if we go by Einstein’s theory of relativity (E=mc2), materiality will have to come from energy. Where does the energy come from? This will amount to chasing our own tail! Of course, theists argue that the “source” (god )of creation is beginningless and hence the question,”Who created the Creator?” is not in order. But that doesn’t convince rationalists.
So, it seems more likely that this universe is a dream, perhaps dream-like. In the dream, we do perceive materiality without really having material. It is all the play of dream consciousness. So, in some sense, a dream comes out of nothing. Likewise, even the so-called real material universe that we perceive in our waking state may still be non-material, just a play of our consciousness, an ephemeral illusion. Of course, this line of argument also leaves us with the question – “Whose dream? Who created that dreamer?” So, it may be better to say that this universe is “dream-like”, dream being just a metaphor to illustrate the phenomenon. It may not necessarily mean a Creator similar to a human being who sleeps and dreams! A better argument then could be that the source is simply something that is unlike anything known to us, a completely unknowable phenomenon whose nature it is to “dream up” a creation. That unknowable phenomenon is given a name – Brahmn.
Now one question still remains. If creation is dream-like, it is not pre-designed and pre-programmed. But then, we do see all things happening in accordance with universal physical laws (laws of nature). How can that be? I have a crazy answer to that! We have an intellect that is basically designed to find patterns in repeatedly observed phenomena. So, in that sense, what we call as physical laws are retrofitted to the observed phenomena. For all we know, the phenomena themselves were not pre-designed!
As an example, think of a person who keeps throwing a ball. The ball follows a trajectory and lands in a particular spot that may be different every time. Scientists then try and identify certain parameters like the force applied to the ball at the time it is thrown through the hole, the angle at which the force is applied, wind resistance and work out a formula. Scientists keep checking their formula and refine it as necessary to take care of all the cases observed and measured thus far. Now, the person throwing the ball is acting randomly and yet scientists find some pattern in it! Likewise, creation is a random dream-like phenomenon and yet, we have found laws governing it!