What created the universe?

In response to the question, "What created the universe?" which is usually the end of a series of such causality inquires and meant as a 'you-can't-explain-that,' from Christian apologists.

Setting aside for the moment that the point wouldn't get us anywhere even if it made sense, let's illustrate the inanity of this question first by defining our term.

Universe: the set of all things that exist.

This is the way I use it. If you don't agree with that definition then we need to find a term we can agree with to proceed.

If you ask the question, "What created the universe?" with this definition in mind, you can clearly see that the question no longer makes sense. The word 'what' must refer to some 'thing', and would therefore belong in 'the set of all things that exist.'

What's more, time is a thing. We are looking for a creator or causer of time. But these concepts don't make sense either. The word 'create' is meaningless outside the context of time. And even if you can somehow force yourself to believe that some 'thing' 'created' time, doing so requires you to ignore the problem of causality which was the very problem we were trying to fix in the first place.

In my view, it is deeply mysterious. Either some thing always existed, something came from nothing, or causality itself can be broken. Each of these seem ridiculous and are impossible to believe, yet, here we are.