Let us begin with Physics – it provides us the Standard Model – the wiki entry says:
The Standard Model of particle physics is the theory describing three of the four known fundamental forces (the electromagnetic, weak, and strong interactions, and not including the gravitational force) in the universe, as well as classifying all known elementary particles.
Regarding this model, Daniel Cossins in his article “10 mysteries of the universe: Why does anything exist at all?”, quotes Werner Rodejohann at the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Germany:
“It is a somewhat embarrassing fact that it fails to explain our existence”.
Daniel Cossins goes a step ahead – he says:
Actually, it’s worse than that: the standard model positively insists we don’t exist. It says that in the big bang, matter and antimatter should have been created in equal measure. These two famously don’t get along, annihilating one another in a flash of light whenever they come within touching distance. They should have snuffed each other out in a hot orgy of mutual destruction during the first second of the universe’s existence, leaving a cosmos filled with nothing but light.
Conclusion: According to the best of theories in Physics – we simply CAN NOT exist!
Theoretical Physicist Sean Carroll (born October 5, 1966), who maintains his web page at a tellingly apt domain called www.preposterousuniverse.com, does lot of work across “quantum mechanics, gravitation, cosmology, statistical mechanics, and foundations of physics”. He runs an exciting project called Mindscape, where he hosts conversations with “the world’s most interesting thinkers”. In one of his podcasts “Episode 9: Solo — Why Is There Something Rather than Nothing?”, he summarizes what Physics says about “Why anything exists at all”:
Physicists such as Stephen Hawking and Lawrence Krauss have offered explanations that rely on quantum mechanics, saying that in a quantum vacuum state particles will spontaneously come into existence. Nobel Laureate Frank Wilczek is credited with the aphorism that “nothing is unstable.”
Though there is a caveat in the same summary:
However, this answer has not satisfied most who pose the question, and physicist Sean Carroll and theologian William Lane Craig have argued that a quantum vacuum state is not a satisfactory definition of “nothing.” Sean Carroll said in his podcast that Wilczek’s aphorism accounts merely for the existence of matter, but not the existence of quantum states, space-time or the universe as a whole.
Since the smallest of sub-atomic particles seem to springing out of nothing, scientists are looking at how to reconcile this as possible conclusion – that the “unstable nothing” is the cause of the physical universe.
This BBC article “Why does anything exist at all” lucidly explains how universe springs our of nothing – in fact, it seems quite easy to create a universe. Physicist Lawrence M. Krauss, author of the book “A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather than Nothing” is quoted as saying:
“The laws of physics as we understand them make it eminently plausible that our universe arose from nothing – no space, no time, no particles, nothing that we now know of.”
Conclusion: Universe springs out of nothingness.
This leads to another “problem” – if it is so easy to create a universe then it all likelihood, we have an infinite number of universes.
The Map so far:
- How “anything” (space, time, energy, matter or any specified part of existence) comes into existence is the core of all knowledge.
- Most likely, infinite number of worlds or universes exist.
Further Reading:
- A Brief History of the Multiverse – a note (and other research) by Andrei Linde, Professor of Physics, Standford.
THE OMNIZIENT KNOWLEDGE ENGINE 