Yeah, man you got yourself a good question there, one which I can not explain.

I do offer this. Matter and energy are interchangable, we know this. What types of matter and energy becomes what types of matter and energy is the problem. There are many forms of both. Examples would be dark matter, and antimatter. Dark matter, if I am not mistaken, is an essential matter for the big bang theory.

So my understanding would then lead me to believe that energy existed first, the big bang changed this energy into matter as we know it today.

So the question then becomes, what energy was present prior to the big bang, and why was it that the big bang produced the matter and energy known today.

Then there is also Shrodinger's cat, which in this instance would mean that there is a possibility that the universe did not exist until we observed it.

This is where God would come in. Since the cat is a duality, both alive and dead, and you don't know until it is observed, maybe religion created the beings to observe the universe, thus the universe was "created" by a higher power.

I am not very good at putting my thoughts on paper, one reason I am an engineer, not a writer.