Will we know why had universe began, why there is something instead of nothing.
Yes.
"There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.
There is another theory which states that this has already happened."
- Douglas Adams
That would explain the last few years.
Towels be with us.
Ultimately, it is extremely rare in nature for there to be just one of anything. Phenomena rarely occur alone. Why should this not extend to the very existence of Universes, independent Big Bangs? Maybe the Big Bang is some incredibly rare quantum fluctuation in the vacuum that occurs by odd chance once every “ten to the ten to the ten to the ten…” years. Some freakishly long length of time. But who cares? There’s no one around to count the empty years. But once in a very blue moon, in some random patch of the vast infinite, infinitely expanding space time, a Big Bang occurs. It has its course and eventually decays down to nothing, returning to the quantum foam from which it sprung. In time, everything decays down to photons, those photons are stretched beyond the cosmic horizon. A Big Bang happens, a Universe thrives, and it decays to nothing. Awhile later, another Big Bang, etc.
So while a Universe is a rare thing, it is not unique. But in turn, it does give a sense of meaning. Suddenly we are now a part of a grand infinity of time and space. The concept of the Wheel of Time is made literal! And that is the thing that whole religions are built on. There are ways to find meaning in an infinite circle.
There is no reason, it’s just random shit causing random shit. If random shit happens on the universes timescales of billions and trillions of years then cool stuff is bound to happen eventually. There’s no rhyme or reason for it.
But it’d be cool to understand how the universe is even here. Why do we have particles and energy? Where does all that come from?
I assume they’re talking about a reason as in a cause, not a reason as in a purpose.
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Empirical observation can get you the what and the how, but I don’t think it will ever tell you the why. Who says there even is a why?
The difference between “how” and “why” doesn’t seem very meaningful to me. For example- why does water boil? It boils because molecules gain enough energy through heat to transition states.
In that same sense, OP’s question
why there is something instead of nothing.?
There’s a non zero chance that we eventually understand the mechanisms behind the big bang and can explain how nothing turned into something. Therefore we will be able to explain the why, no?
The problem with the question of why is that you can always ask why again. Say we do understand the mechanism of the big bang. You can still ask “why” about why things are that way. Which is why in my view that’s still more of a “how?” “Why” is more of a question for philosophers than scientists imo.
But is that not the same way with “how”?
How do objects fall to the ground? → the Earth exerts a gravitational force on them
How does Earth exert a gravitational force? → All objects with mass create a gravitational field that attracts other masses
How do objects create a gravitation field? → Mass warps spacetime and this curvature directs objects to follow paths towards the source of the mass
and so on, etc
I think the “why” exists only with the idea that the universe is directed in some way. e.g. “How can I see around my room”? Photons. “Why”? Because I turned on the light.
Why does the number 42 exist? Answer this and you will answer your question. Related question: does 42 exist even if there is noone there multiplying 6 and 7?
Deep thought.
I don’t think so. Things seem to be leaning more toward the “stuff spontaneously comes from nothing” end of the spectrum as far as I know. Pre-universe causality makes no sense if our understanding of the universe’s origin is true. I’m personally OK with accepting that things don’t necessarily happen for a reason.
If you watch the doc particle fever all the found out was that some particles just got stuck together (gluons and quarks).
That’s how multi cellular life started.
We’re quarks on an atom, caught in an explosion, wondering why we can’t see past when the fire started.
I feel this is not possible from inside the box unless something outside provides us the information.
Asking “why” only makes sense in the context of a conscious decision, unless you accept something like “because the Big Bang happened” as an answer.
It has been said here already but I will say it again, there is no why. Why is a human thing, perhaps an animal thing, at least it is connected to conscious thought. When it rains you do not ask why you can only research how. This is a difficult lesson, we live in a human culture and so feel comfort in being able to ask why people do things as well as how. Not having the why attribute for the physical universe feels cold and inhuman, but the universe is inhuman, even if it’s difficult that is the deal.
Wait, is the big “Why,” with a capital W, just us personifying nature? We’re such social animals that we need to personify everything. People looking for a WHY are ultimately just expecting nature to act like a human being! We’ve evolved as social animals. We need to be used to thinking of actions having causes. Nothing just happens in a social community. If your food stores are suddenly and unexpectedly low, someone stole them. Oh, that nice tool/weapon? You got it from your brother-in-law. You owe him. We have evolved in environments where we need to keep social scores and disperse responsibilities. It’s in our literal, social, and cultural DNA to attribute actions in our environment to people.
But then we also end up applying that to nature. It’s pareidolia at a cultural level. And so we ask Why, with a capital W. Some might make fun of the ancients for personifying forces of nature and raisin them up as Gods. But we’re no different. We do the same damn thing. We’ve just replaced the Gods with “Why.”
I don’t think we will.
But religions don’t offer a good answer, either. At least those that a know. “In the beginning was god” But why was there god? What was there before god? What created god? Ask that in church and you get stoned to death. Or kicked out. Either one of that.
I disagree, although it depends on where you are. Ask it in a theological faculty and it will be an everyday discussion.
If there was nothing there also wouldn’t be anyone asking “why is there something rather than nothing”. It’s the kind of question that can only be asked in a universe that exists. Then answer to “why?” would basically be that because an unlikely even occured. It could just as well have not, but it did and now you’re here.
I’ve sometimes thought, that if there is a purpose or reason for our universe, it’d make most sense to me that its some form of random number generator.
That said, I also accept that this whole thing, me as part of this universe, is just a happenstance. We happen. It happens. This happens. Now happens. Nothing more to it than that.
The happenings can be important to some, can echo, and harmonize, or create dissonance in the future, but fundamentally there is no guiding hand outside reaching in, and so what we make of this, and the actions we make, is just what happens on the skin of the here and now of this universe.
We don’t even know if there is a reason or not. If stuff like cause and effect are properties of the universe itself, they they don’t necessarily have to apply to it coming into existence (and if time and space are merely a part of the universe with no equivalent beyond, then the concept of it being caused by something runs into the issue of there being no time before it for a cause to occur and no place before it for that event to happen in).
There could be some equivalent of all those things of course, that the universe exists within, but we can’t just assume that.
