The problem with the term materialist is, that matter or material is just a particular, solid form of energy.
Energy has been proven to be not destructible, only transformable, hence is even uncreated, therefore must have existed before the Big Bang., along with time, the first or 4st dimension.
just because our instruments do not reach, or receive information from that era, or our 3-4D brains can not "picture" it, does not mean it is not factual.
The quark / quantum conundrums just shows the frontiers of knowledge we have to expand, and
if there is a creator (not god) obviously set up to explore