I started my militant atheist phase about 10 years ago, then emerged from it about 4-5 years ago as I started to understand enough about the world/universe to realise that much of the true nature of existence is way beyond our ability to comprehend.
That doesn't mean I have any belief in a theistic, interventionist god.
It does mean I have an acceptance and appreciation for the transcendent and the unknowable, similar to what Einstein and Darwin described of themselves.
I'd recommend exposing yourself to the writings of physicists like Roger Penrose and Freeman Dyson, and recent podcast appearances by physicist Eric Weinstein, to understand how religion and spirituality can (and indeed, must) co-exist with physics.
To answer the question in the title of your post: we are so far away from understanding the fundamentals of the nature of reality, that such a question doesn't bear any serious consideration at all.
That doesn't mean I have any belief in a theistic, interventionist god.
It does mean I have an acceptance and appreciation for the transcendent and the unknowable, similar to what Einstein and Darwin described of themselves.
I'd recommend exposing yourself to the writings of physicists like Roger Penrose and Freeman Dyson, and recent podcast appearances by physicist Eric Weinstein, to understand how religion and spirituality can (and indeed, must) co-exist with physics.
To answer the question in the title of your post: we are so far away from understanding the fundamentals of the nature of reality, that such a question doesn't bear any serious consideration at all.