The Universe: Accident, Intentional or None of the Above?

Orthoprax is having a debate with a fellow skeptic about whether the origin of the Universe is accidental or Intentional. I was planning on posting about this sooner or later. Here is a brief summary of my current views. Perhaps I will go into more detail later.

The truth is I don't think it's really coherent to talk about the origin of the Universe. Ex nilo doesn't make any sense to me, and therefore there had to always be something which existed. If that's the case then the Universe always existed and we can not speak of a real origin. All we can say that the universe in the form that we currently know it began at some time (call this the Big bang, if you like).

But there are more choices than accidental and intentional. There is also the possibility of unintentional, but necessary. So it's not an "accident" because it had to happen in exactly the way that it did, but at the same time it's not "intentional" i.e. there isn't a force which created it with a purpose (intent) or function in mind. I would choose this option if I had to make a choice.

There may be more ways to look at it. I would be interested in hearing more perspectives