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Existence

Why is there a universe, rather than nothing at all? Is this a question that shall never be answered by science?
Accepted:
June 25, 2011

Comments

Sean Greenberg
June 30, 2011 (changed June 30, 2011) Permalink

Why is there something rather than nothing seems to me to be a quintessential example of a metaphysical question, one that cannot be answered by scientific investigation. It is logically possible that science might come to explain how the universe came into existence--although the information necessary in order to answer this question may well be inaccessible to us, so that the question is practically unanswerable, but even if we had that information, the question of WHY the universe came into existence seems to call for an answer beyond causes investigated by science and thus to lead directly to metaphysics (and religion).

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