If there really were a god, why is there a material universe at all?

I never understood why a god, who had an immaterial kingdom of angels would even bother with creating a material universe in the first place. Never really could grasp that. And what's with the trillions of stars, planets, black holes, quasars, pulsars, and other material celestial things that are out there? What's all that stuff for? If everything has a purpose, and this whole universe is so carefully designed, what the heck is all that stuff for?

LOTS of evidence against a benevolent creator. If this has a creator, "benevolent" is NOT an adjective I would use to desctibe it.

I think there is a divine intellect behind the Universe, tho that intellect is certainly not what the mainstream religions of the world claim. I think the problem here in figuring out this question is we are thinking about it only from our perspective within the universal matrix. We tend to think our existence here, this life, is all there is and we try to justify our existence within the entirety of this one single life. I believe (but cannot prove), that this existence, the lives we live here, are meant only as experiences or lessons to help our higher selves learn and evolve. We view the hate, the suffering, the tragedies as horrific, and certainly they are, but if our soul or essence continues on after the death of our bodies, we just move onto the next class, the next lesson we need to learn. The suffering is only temporary. I think mainstream established religious organizations were created as a way to control the masses, but I still believe there are spiritual paths for our souls to travel on, grow, and evolve. It is said that energy cannot be destroyed, merely altered in form. Our souls are energy, becoming altered, growing and evolving thoughout this and other lives. Like excercising a muscle, the muscle has to go through some trauma, and then rest and heal to become stronger. Same concept with our souls. At least thats my take on it.