Why There is Something Rather than Nothing

Nothin' from nothin' leaves nothin'
You gotta have somethin'
If you wanna be with me

—BILLY PRESTON
"Nothing From Nothing"
(Billy Preston and Bruce Fisher)



(Tap the above image to link to the NASA page for more image options)

In an eSkeptic column, Michael Shermer summarizes scientific thinking on the question of...

Why is there something rather than nothing? The question is usually posed by Christian apologists as a rhetorical argument meant to pose as the drop-dead killer case for God that no scientist can possibly answer. Those days are over. Even though scientists are not in agreement on a final answer to the now non-rhetorical question, they are edging closer to providing logical and even potentially empirically testable hypotheses to account for the universe. Here are a dozen possible answers to the question....

Nothing is Negligible: Why There is Something Rather than Nothing

In the meantime, while scientists sort out the science to answer the question Why is there something instead of nothing?, in addition to reviewing these dozen answers it is also okay to say “I don’t know” and keep searching. There is no need to turn to supernatural answers just to fulfill an emotional need for explanation. Like nature, the mind abhors a vacuum, but sometimes it is better to admit ignorance than feign certainty about which one knows not. If there is one lesson that the history of science has taught us it is that it is arrogant to think that we now know enough to know that we cannot know. Science is young. Let us have the courage to admit our ignorance and to keep searching for answers to these deepest questions.

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