Can there be life without a Universe?

Actually, the whole "Intelligent Design" thing is the same as Aquinas's (or maybe it was Augustine of Hippo's) "Uncaused Cause" argument: since everything has a cause there obviously must be a final cause beyond which there is no cause.

Of course, the whole thing might be circular, but that idea is rejected out of hand by those who are wholly committed to linearity.

As for me, if there IS a Supreme Creator (other than myself, of course) I don't presume to read its mind. Heck, lots of times I can't read my own mind!