Sodr, for one, I already explained why energy being eternal is the simplest answer (I think), but I will bring this argument to you again: Using Occam's Razor ("the simplest answer is most often the correct one." Btw, the more grandios the claim the more likely Occam's Razor is to hold true), we examine the two statements:
Energy is eternal and it decayed into matter and anti-matter which, through a natural process, gained complexity and built up into a singularity that spawned the universe and continued gaining complexity to become the current universe we have today.
Or this:
Before there was time there was an eternal and infinitely complex spiritual being. This being, who, by definition, is a living being, created all that exists, which also presupposes that he/she/it is, at the very least, more powerful than any other single force that has ever existed.
And that is giving no bias toward any specific monotheistic religion. I could have gotten into the omnis and the claims of everything created in 6 days, etc., but this definition could even apply to deism.