Coming into being and being created are the same thing, depending on your definition
My definition for creation requires a creator. And to be clear, creators are conscious agents choosing to create. A wave, for instance, has no creator - it comes into being when water currents collide and move together.
Our consciousness is most likely just an emergent effect of our chemistry, which is an emergent effect of plain physics. The same physics that causes star systems to form causes ant colonies to form.
Agreed.
So “god”, “nature”, “natural selection”, etc could be entities with a conscience in some plane of existence that we don’t understand.
This is a leap of logic to me. It’s conceivable, I’ll admit, but many things are conceivable, such as Cthulhu.
I’m an atheist because I don’t believe in a dumb ancient book, but I accept that there can be things well beyond human comprehension.