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No one knows. I really want to know, but the current understanding takes us back only to the big bang. Not why it happened or why anything exists at all.
The Anthropic Principle is at work here. If nothing existed we wouldn't be here to ask why it exists.
Here's some reaching: There's the ~~theory~~ hypothesis that our universe is the inside of some construct in a higher universe* that is similar to if not actually a black hole.
In our universe, time and space inside a black hole are causally disconnected from the outside so there can be a defined beginning without there needing to be time continuity across the event horizon. It's often said that time and space switch places inside a black hole, which could mean that our time is relative to space outside of the universe. This hurts my head to think about. Almost like our time dimension runs sideways relative to whatever was "before".
* As to whether this is turtles all the way down / universes all the way up, we'll probably never know.
That's not a theory; not in the scientific sense. That's just someone being creative, we have no way to prove or disprove it, ergo it's as useful as explaining everything by God.
You're right. I should have used the word hypothesis.