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Why is there Something rather than Nothing?

The simple fact of conceiving this question, using a tool (computer), and searching for an answer to the conceived question is evidence there is something already.  But why is there something?  Why is there something currently in existence rather than nothing at all? How did the very first iota of 'something' come into existence?  To lead us to the answer we must ask a series of questions: Is something infinite? Did something come from nothing? Is nothing, something?

Observable Evidences

Throughout history, scientist have observed that something exists and have attempted to explain how it exists.  From Copernicus and Galileo, Descartes and Newton, to Albert Einstein, Edwin Hubble, Arno Penzias, Robert Wilson, and Alan Guth.  These people have proposed and brought forth evidences that show HOW a something came from a starting point.  In 1925 Edwin Hubble proved that the universe was expanding and his formula is known as Hubble's Law.  Then the discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation by Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson in 1965 and the Inflationary Universe articulated in 1980 by Alan Guth all showed something as the starting point for the universe.


Infinite Something?

Because we know something exists (You, your consciousness, your mind, your conceived question, and your tool) we can first ask, is it infinite?  You and your tool had a beginning.  Your parents.  Your parents had a beginning, their parents.  Is there an infinite regression of beginnings?  To resolve this first issue we look at logic.  Can something have an infinite past?  For this to be true, the very first something, would never have a present or future because its past would never end.  Logic reveals to us that having an infinite past for something in space and time is not possible.  As the universe expands (Hubble's Law) in time, then we can deduce that it expanded from a certain point in the past.  Some people call this absolute beginning of the material universe the Big Bang in which all possible matter was contained in a singularity.  That leads us to back to our absolute question, where did the singularity come from?  Is that singularity infinite?  Given the drastic change from an infinite past singularity to a sudden expansion to where we are now, we see that the singular can not be an infinite singularity.  Edwin Hubble would agree.

A theory of an ever expanding and contracting universe (Oscillating Universe) attempted to explain the universe but it still never addressed the issue of the initial something before initial expansion into infinite existing universe; and was not supported by the scientific discoveries of a universe that is observably expanding at a faster rate and the discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation.  This idea is called a Closed Universe where after the big bang, the universe's expansion would slow and eventually collapse.  This theory was at one point popular but until more recent discoveries it has fallen out of favor.

From Nothing?

This leads us to our next question: Did this singularity or the iota of something came from nothing?  First, we need to understand what 'nothing' is.  Simply put, 'nothing' is the lack of existence of which has not value, purpose, or being.   If there is no space or time then something can not potentially exist.  The Inflationary (or Inflating) Universe theory with The Big Bang theory all point to a single point of beginning for the universe but does not attempt to explain something from nothing. If there was nothing prior to the singularity, then the singularity could not potentially exist.  Because something is not nothing, logic reveals to us that nothing can not cause something to exist.  Thus nothing, can not cause the existence of the singularity.

Self Generated

Given scientific observations of Hubble and others; and what we can come to know through logic, we see that the universe, and the very first something could not have come from infinity or from nothing.  This leads us to our next logical question, could something just have created itself?  This is partly addressed from the nothingness conclusion.  Before the something created itself, that would mean there was initially nothing.  That brings us back to the previous answer of can something come from nothing.

A second conclusion has been raised; the infinite possible universes.  What if reality is made up of infinite alternate universes.  If this is true, than this means that the potentiality of a universe to come from nothing exist infinity in one of the infinite possibilities.  This extreme theory fails under the most simplest logic.  This theory would require a reality where one of the infinite possibilities is that there are no other universes; and another universe where there is only one infinite universe in all reality.  Hundreds of other 'possible' universes can be thought up that would contradict and disprove this theory.  

Conclusion

Scientist observe the existence of something and have found evidences to support the HOW something came from a starting point.  Philosophy leads us to rule out absurd and illogical theories and points us to the reason WHY there is something rather than nothing.  If something can not just exist infinitely, or come from nothing, or cause itself to become something from nothing; that means something is caused to exist through an uncaused cause which exists outside of space and time of which would be immaterial and eternal.  This uncaused cause would perfectly explain the existence of something rather than nothing and address how that something came into being.  Because science only makes observations and predictions of things in space-time; the immaterial eternal uncaused cause is the philosophical proof that complements the known discoveries in science and further explains why there is something rather than nothing.

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