Why ‘anything’ exists?
It was a quiet morning in one of our university classrooms at the beginning of a new semester. The students in the classroom constituted of both graduate and undergraduate levels. Everyone was called upon to introduce themselves – who they are, where they are from and what did they liked to do in their free time. Soon enough, students came forward one by one, telling the class a little more about themselves than what meets the eye.
A junior of mine, who was an undergraduate at the time came forward, let’s call him Matt. Matt introduced himself, and then he proceeded to say something that caught my attention. He said, “In my free time, I like to learn about the Universe, Astronomy and the questions like – Why should the Universe exist?”. To me, that was an astounding statement. Not only this young man had an interest in the Universe, he was also interested in the question of Why should it all exist in the first place. In other words – “Why is there something instead of nothing?“
Life, like its observable on our planet is remarkable. It often amazes me to think that everywhere in the Universe, as far as we have explored, no life has yet been found, largely because the extreme or unbalanced environments on other planets do not permit it. Yet, in a Universe that is largely devoid of life, it manages to thrive on the “Big Blue” everywhere we turn. The Earth, teems with life on the land, in the air and in its oceans. Its truly remarkable.
Our discoveries about life on our planet have also helped us understand that life is also a remarkably fragile phenomenon. One that cannot emerge until all the space time parameters and physical constants are finely tuned, giving rise to perfect conditions. Therefore, life’s existence and abundance on Earth, demands the answer as to how did it come about. How did Earth alone, in such a vast Universe end up having the perfect conditions where life appeared.
But there’s another question that precedes the ‘How‘. Its the ‘Why‘, which probably many people and most scientists miss – “Why should anything exist?“. Why do we assume that if the conditions are right, life would emerge. Where does “life” itself find its origin. Where does it come from? What causes life? Does life occur spontaneously? is it its own creator? If it is, it sure appears to be immensely powerful to create itself. But how can something that does not exist, create itself. If it could, it would be a miracle. But then, if you are scientist, you don’t believe in miracles. You prefer logic and reason. Well, logic begs the question of how can an ‘effect‘ arise without a ‘cause‘ or how can something that does not exist, create itself? How did life come about on a planet like ours without intervention?
Some people recognize this fallacy of life emerging on its own and therefore appeal to the arguments like – “May be life was brought here from the outer space“. But that still begs the question “How did life originate in the outer space?”
It’s strange that scientists like Charles Darwin and other evolutionary biologists went on to explain the origin of species before understanding or investigating the origin of life. Life, what it means at the foundational level of a single cell. And if we can’t explain how life originates, we are probably going to make massive errors in attempting to explain how it differentiates into countless species of living organisms , as can be witnessed on Earth.
Why should anything exist – is both a scientific and a deeply philosophical question. The first Newtonian law of Physics states – “An object at rest remains at rest, and an object in motion remains in motion at constant speed and in a straight line unless acted on by an external unbalanced force.” If we consider our Universe as a system or an object and apply this law to it, it concludes that any change in the state of this object or system requires the action of an external unbalanced force. This implies that an “effect” (change) cannot occur without a preceding external “cause” acting upon it. In essence, things remain in their current state unless acted on by an external force, reflecting the principle that every effect must have a cause to set it in motion. In the context of the origin of life, life as an observable effect cannot be explained without a cause.
What’s more, is that Scientists have come to conclude that the Universe began to exist. This was a revolutionary finding, as early on most scientists believed that the Universe was eternal. But now we know that’s not the case. The Universe did not always exist. It began to exist. Everything that begins to exist, must have a cause. So naturally, one should ask “what caused the Big Bang so that the Universe came forth? and what caused life to emerge from nothing?” And most importantly, “how can any of this happen without a cause setting things in motion?”. That’s where the key to the meaning of life and essentially, the meaning of everything else lies. Science has explored and understood what happens after the Universe and Life has emerged, but we haven’t really understood, or in some cases, we haven’t even asked how and why they came to be.
As human beings, we believe our lives have meaning and we live in accordance with that belief. We live intentionally and with purpose. If our life and existence has meaning, how can the existence of the Universe in which we live be a random act of chance with no inherent meaning or purpose behind it? Why does the Universe and life exist? Where does life come from? Is it a spontaneous miracle that occurs when the conditions are right or does it need a powerful cause as shown by the laws of Physics and logic.
These are questions of utmost important and cannot be ignored, especially for one to be able to do good Science. Let’s not shy away from thinking deeply to understand why ‘anything’ exists.