Audie: Either theist OR irrational
OK, Audie - let's move beyond our mutually, perhaps misperceived definitions. You are not some enemy, btw. But what I mean by irrational is to believe that what exists does not require a prior source of immense intelligence, power and purpose - or that it, in ANY way, could be called "random." Whatever you call that prior/first/ultimate source is a different issue. But it HAD to have, at the very least, those attributes. AND, that first source had to also be eternal - it could not have been self-created. But I am NOT saying that the options are only the God of the Bible or nothing else. But I am saying that some of the key attributes I've mentioned were totally necessary for whatever that first cause you might think possible. To believe those attributes were unnecessary, I do believe to be irrational, as that defies every logical understanding we have concerning everything we know. And it contradicts the attributes of what came into being at the universe's beginning.
Hard parameters that cannot be ignored, as to the ultimate source of the universe (I don't find it rational to disagree with):
A) A first cause of the universe had to be eternally existing - it could not create itself.
B) A thing either must eternally exist or it comes from some prior thing.
C) The universe that emerged from the ultimate source of all things reveals great intelligence and design, in both individual and interactive functionality, perfectly and
instantly adhering to sophisticated and complex locked parameters - with the exact opposite of randomness being displayed from the very first moment the universe emerged from the Big Bang.
D) That all of the universe and it's mass emerged from a point so tiny as to not be understood, and is a point of reference more than a physical thing - as how could all massive matter and objects of the universe come from some metaphorical dot at the end of a sentence? So, a physical universe immediately comes into existence, where, moments before, it did not exist - and the building block elements, attributes and functionality necessary for our present universe and world are immediately there.
E) That first source had to be breathtakingly powerful - emitted and demonstrated with the universe's first breath, vast scale, and speed of spread.
If one disagrees with the hard parameters above, please state which and why you disagree.