How dense is a singularity before gravity emerges? Also, due to information-energy-matter equivalence, it's not a stretch to assume that the primal state of manifested universe is pure information. I'm afraid your "spiritual explanations" stem from your total misunderstanding of what you call “the most obvious examples [which] are: Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, and Kabbalism.” Oh and one more note, Siegel is correct in this case, no matter how much it irritates you.