If we start with what we do know, then consciousness is right there.

What we know:

* Matter first appeared some 13.8 billion years ago.

* Energy does not get lost

Conclusion: Matter is a form of energy. The transformation of some of that original energy (perhaps 4% of all energy say physicists) occurred then and there.

So, we do not have a creation story about consciousness or energy. We 'only' have a creation story how some energy transformed into matter.

That brings us directly to energy.

One way to define energy, and I am keeping it really simple, is that energy is always directed.

Does that mean there was a Director? Nor per se. But it does mean that Energy is already the same as the direction it is moving into.

Does that declare it is conscious?

* Conscious is about being aware what one does, so that answer is yes.

* Conscious is about being aware of one's surroundings, so that answer may not be an immediate yes.

Watch matter closely and you can see there is innate matter and then there is Life associated with matter.

So, we must already split matter into two realities. Allow me to call one 'dead' matter and the other life matter.

There is no manipulation by the moon trying to circle Earth. The Moon is dead matter. Earth is basically dead matter. Yet due to the special circumstances, matter could indeed bring forth Life, using dead material. How?

Look at the atomic level.

In the center we find the dead material of neutrons and protons. They occupy the center because they are the transformed energy that got damaged. They are the energy with the least of abilities to do something about themselves. They do not have consciousness other than being themselves, directed by their limited abilities, and incapable of proactively influencing their environment.

The electrons, however, are not dead matter. They are moving about; they negate the positive charges of the dead proton, turning the environment into a neutral setting (at the overall level, not the detailed level).

It is the electrons that are conscious (enough) to form Life that can be manipulated.

There could not have been a breakdown, 13.8 billion years ago, if original energy (nothing yet materialized) had not been able to shoot itself in the foot.

Had the original energy not been capable of setting a trap for itself, we would not have been here. Without the accident, we would not have been here. It take consciousness to setup that accident.

But it was also consciousness that had its minds on a prize it did not get. It got the accident instead.

We could not have been here had there not been any consciousness. The mistake had to be made.