Elf Sternberg

More or less equivalent, in terms of what little we factually know about the origins of the universe. It comes back to the problem of explaining how energy and matter can come into existence where they previously did not exist, I think.

There was an interesting article in the current issue of Atlantic Monthly by a child psychologist which touched on why humans feel the need to find intentionality even when there is none, I put a few excerpts up on my LJ. I think that may be part of the answer to your question about why people find the proposition "there is no God" more threatening than denying llamavinity, because it goes against the tendency in human nature to believe in a non-material reality. At least in our culture, that tends to be translated into some kind of belief in God, gods, etc.