About the universe, I dunno. I'm religious, and my view is that God set everything in motion at the very beginning. Physics, laws of nature, the universe is like clockwork, works in very precise ways and is so complicated.
Of course, my belief could actually be false and you are all machines made to experiment on the last human being on earth, me, so everything I do is being recorded. TAKE THE RED PILL.
Anyways, that's a cool thought experiment. "The universe is living." Interesting.