Why Does the World Exist?

For Father’s Day, Janet bought me a book.  That in and of itself is not terribly interesting or surprising.  It was a really good book.  That also does not seem surprising, but therein lies a tale.  I have been married to Janet for 25 years; we dated for 5 years before getting married.  In that entire span of three decades, I have read a lot of books.  Yet, and here is the part which will Astound One and All, in that entire span of three decades, 30 years, 360 months, nearly 11,000 days, Janet has not once—and I mean never—looked  up and asked me, “What are you reading?”  She has never once, to the best of my knowledge, ever looked at a book I was reading to see what it was.  Yet, when it comes to wandering into a bookstore to buy a book for me, she has an uncanny ability to find books that I have not read and are actually extremely interesting. 

Now when I noted this oddity to her the other day, she laughed.  And then she said, “Well, I don’t have to ask what you are reading to find out.”  One of the young‘ins who was there laughed at Janet’s witticism.  I was nonplussed.  I still am.  I don’t think I talk about every book I read.  And even if I did, how is it possible to not ever ask what I am reading? 

But, to the book, which was good, but you knew that because Janet bought it for me.  Why Does the World Exist? by Jim Holt.  In this case, the title is not deceptive; it is exactly the subject of the book. Holt poses the question and then travels around, Socrates-like, to assorted people who think they can answer the question.  Nobody has a very satisfying answer.  Holt tries to provide an answer at the end, but oddly, after just showing how nobody can provide a satisfying answer, he seems to think his answer might be at least somewhat satisfying, but suffice it to say a) his answer is not in the least bit satisfying and b) his answer is totally irrelevant in evaluating the quality of this book, which is extremely high.

Just think about the question for a bit.  Why is there something rather than nothing?  Obviously there is something.  But why?  Is it Necessary for there to be something?  Is or Was Nothing a possibility.  Could it be that Nothing...and here we get stuck even more…can you ask Could Nothing Exist?  Is Nothing Something or is it the absence of Something?  If Nothing is the absence of Something, then can it exist or does existence require being something?

Now it seems like this question of why the world exists can be easily solved by positing a Deity.  The world exists because a Divine Power Created it.  But, that backs up the question.  Why does God exist?  To which the traditional theological answer is God Necessarily exists because Existence is a Necessary Characteristic of Deity.  But, how do we know that?  Does God necessarily exist?  Is it possible that God could Not have existed?    What is the either the Deity-generating Process or the Reason that the non-existence of God is impossible?  In other words, even if the Universe is Created by God, if we consider the God/Universe combination or the Universe alone, the exact same questions arise:  Why?

The multiverse doesn’t solve this, by the way:  This universe may exists because there are infinitely many universes, but why are there infinitely many universes?  Also, if there are infinitely many universes, is there a universe which doesn’t exist?  Is the non-existence of a universe among the possibilities granted by the multiverse?  What does that question even mean?

It also seems like if we can get around the question by asking what seems like a simpler question. What is the purpose of the universe?  Or, How did the Universe come into Being?  But neither of those questions has a very good answer either.

This most excellent book by Holt does not have an answer (as noted above, ignore Holt’s desperation pass at the end—it falls incomplete).  But, reading this book is like one endless mental exercise on an unbelievably fascinating question.  This book is like one of these wandering discussions which just keep turning back on themselves and by the end you aren’t even sure what you are asking, but by golly, it sure feels like you are making progress toward some unknown end but you have no idea what you are learning because you have forgotten where the question started or what you were trying to answer or even whether you are actually writing a coherent sentence or off on some bizarre string of words in which each world follows from what came before but it is no longer clear if what is currently being written has any resemblance the to the matter you began to write about at the commencement of the sentence, which probably no longer qualifies as a sentence anyway.

Why Does the World Exist?  I have no idea.  In fact, I know less now than I did when I started reading this book.  And that is seriously high praise for a book.