Why did the universe come into existence?
Going through the timeline of the universe (Big Bang, separation of forces, symmetry breaking, particle formation...), everything that happened lead ultimately to the existence of conscious life which is trying to rationalize the universe itself. The more knowledge we gain and the more we advance as a civilization, nature becomes more and more obscure on the fundamental level (from theory of indivisible atoms through elemental particles and the Standard model to strings).
There seems to be a deep link between consciousness and the existence of the universe. Our species will be eventually in danger of extinction and the universe has a lifetime and ultimately will cease out of existence, therefore I feel that we are forced to advance constantly and increase our knowledge. Is the purpose of the universe to comprehend itself?
EDIT: This is not assuming that we are the only conscious lifeform in the universe. If rationalization is actually the ultimate purpose, it would make sense that a vast number of conscious species exist across the universe.