We humans are inextricably locked-in with “time.” It controls and regiments our lives from birth to the grave. We invented clocks to keep track of the process.  We know that there was a yesterday, a now, and a tomorrow yet to come. The human brain is wholly and necessarily configured for this.
For us, with our human limitations, in order for something to exist, it absolutely must have, or had to have, a beginning. Plain and simple logic from the standpoint of an ephemeral human! We’re here for a while and then gone. A beginning and an end. Therefore, we anthropomorphically apply these premises to the Cosmos; at least, that is to say, that it had a starting point … at some point.
Deductive reasoning indicates that our Universe [Astro-Physicists now theorize ‘Multiverses’] had a beginning. But if so, then logically (human logic) something had to previously exist to instigate that beginning – ad infinitum! A quirky conundrum of the highest order for us “reasoning” humans – the only species on Earth endowed with true reasoning powers.
So I assert, and I’m not alone, that the Universe (or Multiverses) has always existed in one form or another, even before the “Big Bang.” Akin to running a finger around the surface of a balloon -- one will never bump into a beginning or an end.
Will the Universe eventually self-annihilate? It can’t because in doing so it would just evolve from one form of matter into another. Nothing came into existence and nothing will go out of existence. What there is has always been. Hard to swallow, but that’s only because we’re stuck with our clock-ticking brains. As there was never a beginning (as we know the word), there will never be an end. 
So did a God with “objectives” have anything to do with all of this celestial stuff? Not in my opinion.
There are 8 planets (or questionably 9) revolving around our Sun. Earth is the only planet that took up station some 4.5 billion years ago at just the right distance and orbit. At first it was a fiery hell, but over eons it slowly transformed into a world abundant with flora and water. Life forms would get underway only countless centuries later in the deep waters of the oceans.
The other planets were also fortunate to maintain perfect orbits, which prevented them from being swallowed up by the sun. But we now know that none of them harbour any significant life forms. Some, like Venus, are cauldrons of hell in any case. Better chance of starting life in your 400 degree oven. A hopeful candidate is Mars, where microbial life might yet be discovered.
If all of this has anything to do with God, then we must assume that the remaining “lifeless” planets of our solar system are just his decorative frills and of no practical value to us Earthlings. In other words, why did he bother?
Our sun is just one of billions of commonplace stars (estimate = 400 billion) in our Milky Way Galaxy, most of which with their own planetary “solar systems.” As I type, scientists are continuing to discover new planets – “exoplanets” – orbiting distant stars in the Milk Way system. Most planets are inhospitable to life as we know it. How they can know this from home base Earth is fascinating, but too lengthy and a deviation from my topic.
But our approximately 800,000 light years wide Milky Way galaxy is scarcely a blip on the screen of the Cosmos as a whole. Recent estimates (released a couple ol months ago) are 3 trillion galaxies in the “visible” Universe, each teeming with billions of stars and planets, and odds are that life is abundant throughout, although “intelligent” life is a much bigger leap. And this is just our Universe. If we add the much-hyped possibility of “multiverses,” then we have numbers that exceed the bounds of our human brains.
But again, if the vast majority of all this mind-blowing celestial real estate is just space junk, then to what purpose Mr. God? Just more decoration, most of which the eyes of your Earthly creation cannot discern in any case? Beats me!
Dinosaurs and their kind, roamed planet Earth for about 175 million years. For all of that vast amount of time, not one human being existed. None -- they couldn’t!
So what was God up to for those 175 million years? We need to ponder this.  Was this immense chunk of time just a segment of his so-called “rest period” before he unleashed his ultimate creation -- human beings?  Nonsense!
As the dinosaurs were a product of slow-moving, but patient evolution, no less so are we humans; indeed, it is so with all Earthly lifeforms: Products of evolution and not of a magic-wand waving process wherein a species is created as a final and wholesome product, e.g. Adam & Eve (a fable of such magnitude that it shames Aesop). 
The dinosaurs, and the rest if their bulky ilk, perished some 66 million years ago. Most widely accepted modern-day hypothesis is that a giant asteroid plummeted into the Yucatán Peninsula, off the east coast of Mexico (tangible evidence of this), releasing energy equivalent to 100 trillion tons of TNT, more than a billion times greater than the atom bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Subsequently, the entire planet was in the grips of a long-lasting “Nuclear Winter,” which ultimately wiped out the “big guys,” e.g. Dinosaurs.
But smaller mammals that had eked out an existence in cracks and crevices, survived and, with the extinction of those giant blokes, they were able to come out of hiding (when the coast was clear) and continue to thrive.  Through the process of millions of years of evolution, these tiny critters eventually gave rise to new species, such as apes and thence to bipedal humans.
It’s no stretch to assert that Dinosaurs and their diverse cousins would still be the dominant species if that apocalyptic asteroid had bypassed our Earth. No reason to doubt otherwise. After all, they were doing just fine and dandy for 175 million years on a human-less planet.
Was all of this then just a well thought out, long range plan on God’s part to kick-start his king of all species – humans?  Again, nonsense! 
It could be said that we humans are cursed with the ability to reason. And insofar as we know, up to now, we are the only animal that possesses a full and heightened sense of self--awareness. We can contemplate and ponder our existence. None of the cherished dog pets I owned over the years were capable of this. And no, it’s not a debatable point!
Although all life forms (y compris humans) have within them the instinct to survive at all costs, they definitely do not all have the ability to spend their waking hours moping about their ultimate fate – death.
But that’s the “rub” for of us humans (aforementioned ‘curse’). Even before we reach puberty we know that we are “mortal.”  But during those budding years, we are apt to brush it aside … something to be dealt with, or further considered, at a much later date.  Having too much fun now!
Lower animals live in harmony with the mindless process of Nature. Famed English poet John Keats – 1725-1821 – writes in his poem Ode to a Nightingale: “Thou wast not born for death, immortal Bird!” The nightingale, or any bird, is incapable of contemplating death. It just runs the course of its life blissfully oblivious to an eventual non-existence … lives in harmony with Nature. We rage against it.
Centuries ago when a twig of life branched off to begin the long evolutionary process of developing into human beings, there came an Eureka moment when self-awareness and a more comprehensive recognition of their environment kicked in.  Various gods were blamed for natural calamities such as earthquakes, hurricanes, floods and drought. Humans were often sacrificed to appease and assuage the wrath of these gods. The Greeks invented a glut of them, some of which very imaginative and fanciful. But all of them existed only in the minds of humankind.
Nowadays, we have boiled it down to one God only, at least for most modern humans and in the form of multiple religions. But how did this exclusive God happen upon the scene? Did he/it at some point in time just palpably reveal himself once only to his human flock, announcing: “Okay, now you see me and now I’m out of here, no ifs ands or buts!?” 
No! Like all gods this one was also concocted in the minds of men. Why? Because we all have a natural fear of death – that inescapable moment when we are no longer a living entity. This reality doesn’t at all sit well with a self-aware creature, such as we are. Therefore, let’s invent a benevolent god who has the ability to ensure we survive our own demise, but only if we follow his strict rules and dictums.  More nonsense!
Jesus, albeit a stirring, travelling politician in his time, was a mere mortal, like the rest of his contemporaries. He was never raised from the dead, because that’s utterly impossible (ask any mortician), unless of course you want to believe it. 
Jesus died a painful death on a makeshift cross and for sure that was a pity. But many at that time were executed in such a horrific manner. 
And “dying for our sins?” Mankind has always “sinned” – countless centuries before Jesus’ death and right up to present day. His sacrificial death (as some believe) did not change a thing.  And for that whom shall we blame?  We set our sights only on our invented god for making us imperfect in the first place. But wait … he’s omnipotent! So why would he be wont to do that? Easy – he erred.
At the time of Jesus, superstition and hearsay were rampant. Stories that passed by mouth to others were surely subject to change and distortion, e.g. Jesus and his disciple Peter walking on the surface of the Sea of Galilee. Impossible, unless of course magic props were set up, with due rehearsal time. Twisted truths and distorted facts!  
Warped truths, superstition, hearsay, hysteria and gullibility during the “Salem Witch Trials” (1692 – 1693) caused the deaths of many innocent young women.  Similarly, the “imaginative” minds of many of Jesus’ followers no doubt played a role in what was recorded via the written word at the time.  And that’s all we have today, their “word” with no possibility of an undoctored video, which would have clinched it. 
The Bible contains the words of deep-thinking men in ancient times – words not directed by a never seen God. A wonderful code of life perhaps, but there is nothing Divine about the Bible.
Man invented a God who offers a life-everlasting because the thought of a permanent blackness with no waking up does not sit well with most of us. God to the rescue. But no such outlet awaits lower animals, just for us smug humans.
God needs to renounce his secret ways and stop scaring us with threats of a burning Hell if we don’t kowtow. Part the heavens and reveal thyself to the entire world. In that case, all will become immediately reverent.
But it ain’t gonna happen because there’s nothing out there. And that’s the bottom line.