Bryson Reading Chap 1 QQC

"Atoms are so numerous and nessacary that we easily overlook that they needn't actually exist at all. There is no law that requires the universe to fill itself with same particles of matter or to produce light and gravity and other physical properties on which our existance hinges. There needn't acutally be a univere at all. For the longest time there wasn't. There were no atoms and no universe to float about in. There was nothing- nothing at all anywhere."

In a world of nothingness, how could atoms form and create life the earth and life?
I feel as if people are so hooked on the idea of atoms, that they don't tend to look farther than it. When everything is summed up, the existince of anything all comes down to one thing, and that's atoms. I wonder if any scientist has thought past atoms. Also, tying this in with religious beliefs, I find it hard to believe that in a place where nothing existed, all of a sudden atoms appear and then some Big Bang happens and they start creating life.
It might sound strange coming from a I, an religious person, but this theory is far fetched to me. The Bible which explains that God created the heavens and the earth, animals, humans, etc sounds exccesively more plausible than the Big Bang Idea, and especially more plausible than the whole "We evolved from monkeys" theory that so many people are convinced about. (I also simply am not a fan of monkeys).
Other than this, I actually REALLY enjoy this quote. The last two sentences made me a imagine just a vast black of nothingness. Gave me one of those 'woah' feelings. It also brought me back to the video I watched in class, which basically started off at the earth, and then began to zoom out until we were space, and it kept zoomin out farther and father to the point of which our solar system (or glaxay?)was no longer visible.
On this note, with a universe as vast as hours and also the amazing technology we have to fly out in to space, why haven't we found other lifeforms on other planets? Why aren't we living a Star Wars like life yet? Or atleast, why isn't the knowledge of extraterristial life common? Surely, the government keeps secrets. And if extraterritals do exists, I wonder if they would be made up of atoms as well? Are atoms the only kind of particles that can make up life?