The purpose of the universe is to create beings that know and create. It is the nature of intelligence to create intelligence. As cold is the absence of heat and darkness is the absence of light, evil is the absence of good. We know from our own experiences that men do evil not for evil's sake but for the sake of their own good. We know from our own experiences that we prefer good over evil. We know from our own experiences that when we violate the moral law we rationalize that we didn't, but we never abandon the concept. We know we live in a universe where there has never been an uncaused event. Therefore, everything does happen for a reason and everything is connected. When what we perceive as bad happens there is something good that comes from it.
We live in a universe where the laws of nature are such that where given enough time and the right conditions beings that know and create will arise. Beings that know and create were pre-destined by the laws of nature at the moment space and time were created.
There is order everywhere. It is all around you. Order from chaos. The cosmic evolutionary phase of Creation was very chaotic - the development of space, time, matter and energy from nothing - and occurred quickly. It was during this phase that hydrogen and helium were formed from sub-atomic particles. The stellar evolutionary phase of Creation saw the development of complex stars from the chaotic first elements. The chemical evolutionary phase - the development of all chemical elements from an original two - occurred through supernovas which created and flung the heavier elements across the galaxies (i.e. stardust). This is very similar to how life is spread by plants here on earth which must die and let their seed fall to the ground where the seeds of life are spread by the wind. Except in this case it was star dust that was spread. All of these processes followed a predictable pattern of evolving from a more simple state, hydrogen and helium, to a more complex state, all of the elements and chemical compounds that we see today.These are the three phases in the evolution of non-living matter. Each phase evolved from a less complex state to a more complex state (i.e. order). During each phase matter had to reach its potential before the next phase could begin as each phase built upon the previous phase. The universe did not construct itself randomly. It followed natural laws. Each phase was pre-destined to occur by the laws of nature which came into existence at the time space and matter were created.
However matter made the leap to life, it is generally accepted that life began as a simple life organism; a single cell. And just like non-living matter before it, life followed a similar pattern of complexification. One of the things that sets life apart from inanimate matter is the ability to reproduce itself. When life first burst onto the scene, it rapidly reproduced itself. This is called the expansionary phase. During the expansionary phase slight mutations created just enough diversity to create competition. Eventually the rapid expansion subsides and life found itself in its equilibrium phase. During its equilibrium phase competition promoted further diversification until life reached its potential and make the leap to the next stage. Thereby starting this process all over again. At every step of the way matter complexified into order until at last beings that know and create began to exist. Thus, the universe began to know itself in the ultimate act of order from chaos.
But make no mistake, beings that know and create were pre-destined by the laws of nature at the moment space and time were created.
A common belief of atheists is that they believe that everything happened as a result of random chance and they mistakenly point to entropy as the basis for their belief. The 2nd Law states that the entropy of closed system will always increase over time. Entropy is the unavailability of a system's thermal energy for conversion into mechanical work, often interpreted as the degree of disorder or randomness in the system. This does not prove chaos or randomness in the way they imply. It only conveys a loss of thermal energy for conversion into mechanical work. Loss of thermal energy for conversion into mechanical work does not mean the matter within the closed system cannot be orderly. What it really means is that there is a cost for every exchange between matter and energy. Furthermore, the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics proves that the universe had a beginning because if the universe were eternal there would be no usable energy left within the closed system.
The matter/energy which you are made of was created when space and time were created. The law of conservation of mass or principle of mass conservation states that for any system closed to all transfers of matter and energy, the mass of the system must remain constant over time, as system mass cannot change quantity if it is not added or removed. Hence, the quantity of mass is "conserved" over time. The law implies that mass can neither be created nor destroyed, although it may be rearranged in space, or the entities associated with it may be changed in form, as for example when light or physical work is transformed into particles that contribute the same mass to the system as the light or work had contributed. Thus, during any chemical reaction, nuclear reaction, or radioactive decay in an isolated system, the total mass of the reactants or starting materials must be equal to the mass of the products.
The matter/energy which we are made of was created when space and time were created. We are literally star dust. We came from dust and we will return to dust. Just as the laws of nature pre-destined that we - beings that know and create - would arise.
It looks like you are new to Philosophy.
In Philosophy, the first issue that is normally addressed is Epistemology -- the question of what can we know about anything and how do we know it?
This fundamental question is usually answered in Philosophy with agreement that only pure rational logical human thought can discover anything, and then only to the extent of our limited feeble senses -- seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, and tasting.
Drebbel and Galileo added precision instruments to Natural Philosophy and this gave birth to Science, a new concept and completely separate from Philosophy and Religion, changing Philosophy and Religion forever at the micro level but not at the macro level. Science enables us to improve our sensory perceptions by seeing the almost infinitely distant and infinitely small.
But the fundamental questions of Philosophy are still unchanged. What we can know about anything and how we can know it has changed by orders of magnitude but not infinitely and not exclusively in every case.
Once you have determined by pure rational logical human thought that you yourself do indeed exist, then you must determine what else is real besides yourself. The Modern Empiricists point to the world and universe around us and accept as a given that these all exist.
Once you have ascertained that you and the world and the Universe around us exists, then you must ask "Where did it all come from?"
If it created itself, "How" did it do this?
If it was created, "Who" did this?
Thus then "We" were either created by (1) the Universe or (2) by the Creator of the Universe.
YOU are asking WHY? To what PURPOSE?
We don't even know WHO yet.
Our scientific instruments have not found the center of the Universe yet and we have not seen a Creator walking in his backyard garden.
Our pure rational logical thought has not yet been able to determine WHY?
We simply do not know. Philosophy cannot tell us. Science has not told us. And religion is mostly just doctrine and dogma.
