We are the universe experiencing itself. Schrodinger's cat emphasizes that for anything to happen there needs to be an observer, thus there would have to be an observer before life could exit, but because all living beings can influence reality, our perception is just as powerful as the original observer, and that can only be true if our awareness is the awareness of that original observer, thus any experience is the universe experiencing itself!
The truth is life is a mystery and any conclusion on it, is dangerous!
A start and end, is only considered for usefulness but in actual fact doesn't exit. In a cycle how we decide where the start and end is? and everything cycles in nature, and deciding how the universe started is like saying the egg came before the chicken!