I think this whole "start of the universe" thing has got blown out of proportion, mostly because of a couple of unsaid lines.
Previous to the universe as it is now, there was nothing of a state we can comprehend or know
Ergo, the physical universe as it exists within our observation was once something else we cannot understand or investigate. Possibly it obeyed different physical laws. Doesnt matter.
Thus there can be a legitimate beginning and end to the universe. After our universe ends, who knows what might happen?
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"There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart,
that you can't take part" [Mario Savo, 1964]