I disagree when you are talking about the far past or even deep space. Bended light and such does not have to be due to gravity, although it is in our system. If all you mean is that you predict a bridge will stand and last 50 years, well, that is fine. (assuming Jesus doesn't return first)
I was talking about the past. Clearly, the further back you go, the less evidence will have survived, and you have to rely on the consistencies to guide you to what little evidence remains. Beyond some point, no physical evidence will have survived, but you can use general rules of consistency (e.g. the laws of physics) to extrapolate further back.
Astronomy gives us physical evidence of the nature of the distant past, before even the solar system was formed - and again, we find that what we observe of those times is surprisingly consistent with the predictions of our best models of how the universe behaves, which reinforces our confidence that the models describe the observable universe reasonably well.
Some basic assumptions are required, such as the
Cosmological Principle, but using them, a very consistent pattern is seen, which suggests they're reasonable.
... since man and most creatures could not leave remains I assume in the former nature, that pattern has zero to do with the religious implications you seek to pin on them.
I follow the first part of that sentence - obviously creatures can't leave remains earlier than their first existence. I'm not making any religious implications, just explaining how the patterns in our observations of the world make a consistent and coherent picture of the past even though we weren't around to see it.
No need to ignore anything but the reasons you assign by faith alone as to why patterns exist.
I have no idea why the patterns exist; I just know (not by faith but by observation) they're there . People believe, or have believed, in numerous creation myths, and hundreds, if not thousands, of deities. I don't subscribe to any of them (the descriptions I've heard seem incoherent, inconsistent, and lacking in evidence), so for me, the 'why' (and the ultimate 'how') of the universe and its patterns remains an open question.