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Why is there something rather than nothing?

And before you answer "God did it," consider Carl Sagan's reply "then how did God come about?"

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    $\begingroup$ Way too off-topic. If there were nothing you woundn't ask (I is much more profound that it may seem). $\endgroup$ – Piotr Migdal Nov 16 '10 at 13:56
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    $\begingroup$ Because. [ ](emp.ty) $\endgroup$ – Tobias Kienzler Nov 16 '10 at 14:01
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    $\begingroup$ This question should be closed... $\endgroup$ – Cedric H. Nov 16 '10 at 14:15
  • $\begingroup$ Not a physics question, and I'd say it's a bad philosophy question. But then, I'm biased towards analytic philosophy. $\endgroup$ – Raskolnikov Nov 16 '10 at 14:15
  • $\begingroup$ Sydney Coleman and others published on this question, considering it really as the subquestion referring to why the apparent matter/antimatter asymmetry, which of course is now the subject of active experimentation. Furthermore a subquestion could refer to the origin of inflation, assuming that it occurred. I vote to edit the question and reopen. $\endgroup$ – sigoldberg1 Nov 16 '10 at 19:57
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The question is unanswerable. If I tell you "because P", then you can simply ask what caused P.

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  • $\begingroup$ This does not provide an answer to the question. To critique or request clarification from an author, leave a comment below their post - you can always comment on your own posts, and once you have sufficient reputation you will be able to comment on any post. $\endgroup$ – Manishearth Dec 2 '12 at 2:06
  • $\begingroup$ @Manishearth: I actually think that this is as good an answer as can be provided to this question. Any scientific explanation will have to rely on some general laws, and then the question would indeed become "but why do these laws hold?". $\endgroup$ – Yvan Velenik Jan 19 '13 at 9:47
  • $\begingroup$ @YvanVelenik: True. This is why the question was closed, it really can't be answered properly via physics. $\endgroup$ – Manishearth Jan 19 '13 at 9:49

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