After the beginning of this universe, we can study it like we study any artifact. We can look for clues about what it does, how it works, what its creator used it for, how it was used, who used it, how it was made, what value it had and more. The difference between the study of this universe and any other artifact is that this universe is a functioning, evolving artifact that we experience and we are part of it.
Like all other artifacts, we do not have its creator before us for comment and the environment in which this artifact was created is not the one we now experience. Like all other artifacts, we study it to learn what we can of it and its creator. I will clarify my use of the word creator. This universe was formed by a creating force acting naturally or by a decided creator or plural which applied that creating force.
Whether by natural or applied creating force, the result, for residents of this universe, is the same: we can study this universe, we can study the creating force, but we cannot yet query a decided creator so long as it or they remain absent. We cannot prove it or they to be non existent. We can only ponder its or their absence; our lack of knowledge. Even when we have acquired the fullest possible knowledge of this artifact, this functioning, evolving universe from its creating force to its eventual transformation, a debate could still be engaged over the existence or non existence of a decided creator; our lack of that knowledge.
It remains, then, that some things are yet unknowable. It remains, then, that our only source of knowledge is this artifact that we reside within and experience and study. So we use our most advanced tools to gaze into space and look some 13.7 billion years back in time and use that information to look billions of years ahead and we study the cosmic micro-wave background, looking for clues that could help us acquire knowledge of things extant even before this universe began to inflate and how it might evolve and transform.
Philosophy and science can concur that no decided creator was required to inflate this universe, yet cannot produce knowledge of a decided creator. Religion can capture imagination to produce belief of a decided creator, yet cannot produce knowledge of a decded creator. So I have some questions. I start with two:
Can this universe and its creating force provide me with sufficient knowledge to support the decisions by which I manage my daily activity and determine my future?
Can religion offer me any knowledge that would extend or improve or enhance or advance the knowledge provided to me by this universe and its creating force?