Thanks for posting this, Josh in the UK…BIG topic. The universe having a beginning does not mean automatically that there is a God…but it does open up that possibility…That is a paraphrase of something that some scientist said —
Either way you cut it, arguments like those of the non-theistic scientists are as faith-based as those of scientists and others who do believe in a Creator God. …“the universe knew we were coming” as one scientist once said…for many, the details are what make the case or at least point to Something outside all of it…for example, the late Fred Hoyle evidently found some of the steps in the formation of the carbon atom so shocking that it “challenged” his atheism. Hope you do some more reading.
Regarding not seeing signposts, there is such a phenomenon as spiritual eyes that are blind and ears that cannot hear, let alone rational minds that forbid the existence of the supernatural.
The notion that one can simply change the meaning of a word and thereby change what one can do with the word is not new; neither, IMO, is it any more forgivable than Doctor Y shooting Mr. X and calling Mr. Y “Mr. X”, and declaring Mr. X cured.
It is precisely because Newton’s Absolute Space was “the ultimate nothing”, that the construct fell into disfavor, and “Absolute Time” thereafter.
Few people–especially not physicists–like “real nothing.”