Some people believe that there is really only one unanswered question:
"Why is there something rather than nothing?" (i.e., why does ANYTHING
exist?)  If you google this exact phrase, you get some info but not
much.  This specific question has been tackled by philosophers, but
the only treatments I can find are from Ch. 2 of Robert Nozick's
_Philosophical Explanations_ and page 180 of Daniel C. Dennett's
_Darwin's Dangerous Idea_.  Can you provide at least three links to
other folks' attempts to answer this question? (Or, if you dare,
attempt to answer the question yourself?)  Thanks!

I suppose it depends on the definitions of "something" and "nothing".

For example, if one considers the earth as "something" then this brief
moment in time that the earth has been in existence - given the
trillions of years the universe had existed BEFORE the earth and the
trillions of years it will linger on AFTER the earth is no more - then
it stands to reason that where "something" versus "nothing" is
concerned, there HAS in fact historically and scientifically been
"nothing" more than 99.9% of the time. Of course, we can't quantify
that because we are presently co-existing with "something". That is to
say that we are not capable of comprehending the NORMAL state of
things; which has eternally been "nothing" before the earth came into
being and will enternally be "nothing" long after it is gone.

"Something" then is just a momentary episode in the grand scheme of
things that, as Abraham Lincoln once put it in a speech, will be
little noted nor long remembered. This bit of logical renders the
question "Why is there something rather than nothing?" irrelevant. A
more intelligent question (and one that may actually be answered
someday) would be "Why is there something NOW, rather than the
nothingness that has always been?"

You posed a very heady question. Now if you will excuse me, I think I
will go take an asprin and lay down. :)

Regards;
tutuzdad-ga

Hi Bookshelf. Makes you wonder why the scripture is there... if not to
tell us something..Hebrews 3;4 " Of course, every house is constructed
by someone, but He that constructed all things is God". If you beleive
that God created us, is it not feasable that He would also create for
us a place to live, our world. Everything we use for our benefit is
and was existing. e,g, wood from trees. Oil from the ground. Genesis
1;14-18 states that God made the "luminaries", sun and moon and stars.
And we still , despite the Hubble telescope, not seen the full extent
of them, and galaxies. Whatever method God used to create them,
whether BIG BANG or not, they are there and did not get there by
accident.

Bookshelf,

What makes you think there is?

Apteryx