> The most reasonable conclusion, IMO, is that there MUST be a higher intelligence.
> I think that is less a leap of faith than saying that "nothing caused something".
saying there must be a higher intelligence is pretty much the same leap as saying nothing caused something.
the only reasonable answer is, that nobody knows what happened at the beginning of your universe, in case it had a beginning that is. nobody knows what was before. maybe there was another universe. maybe the universe always existed in a different form. but one thing we can know for sure: the universe was not created by some highly intelligent being.