Quentin Smith, an atheist philosopher, admits it belongs analytically to the concept of the cosmological singularity that it is not the effect of prior physical events. The definition of singularity entails that it is impossible to extend the space-time manifold beyond the singularity. This effectively rules out the idea that the singularity is an effect of some prior natural process. It can't be just anything. Hawking's model avoids the origin of the universe only by positing imaginary time in the earliest stage of the universe.
Time is ordered by relations of earlier than and later than among the elements of time.
There is nothing even remotely like those relations among the elements of space. So the model can only be understood as a mathematical formalism that does not correspond to reality. On the contrary, our first and most intimate acquaintance with causes is with our own volitions, by which we cause things like the raising of my arm. Similarly, God can will to produce an effect in the universe. Dr. Jesseph reiterates the point about inflationary models, but I simply underscore the fact that for the universe to undergo inflation it requires an enormous amount of fine tuning.