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Step 5: Answering the Question
So far we’ve been talking about physical objects; however, the same principle holds for anything that exists in the universe, including the nonphysical and metaphysical. Any philosopher will tell you that no idea exists in a vacuum; an idea is defined as much by its context, associated ideas and contrary notions as by its own construction. Ideas are defined by the combination of what they are and what they are not. An idea is also given definition by the physical words that are spoken, the humans that think and speak them, the earth that encompasses them and the starry heavens that inspire them. Equally true, emotions such as love, anger or hope are defined by themselves, their opposites and an infinite range of physical and metaphysical realities that are not them. Anything and everything that exists does so only by the interrelationship between itself and that which is not it, the conjunction of Condition 1 and Condition 2.
Including the universe itself.
Using the Existence Formula, for the universe (“A”) to exist, there would have to be the convergence of Condition 1, the infinite possibilities inherent in the universe, and Condition 2, the existence of something that is not the universe (not-A). That “not-universe” can variously be described as nonexistence, the void or “nothing.”
So why not just the void? Why isn’t there simply nothing and no something? The answer lurks within the word itself: no-thing. You cannot have “nothing” without “thing.” The state of “nothing” derives its reality from the interrelationship between itself (Condition 1) and what it isn’t (Condition 2). What it isn’t is “something” (or in fact “everything”). There could not be a Nothing without there also being a Something which gives it meaning and reality. The universe, or “existence,” is not something that could or could not be. It is because it must be. The notion of a time or place where there is only “nothing,” a void pre-dating the universe, is a logical absurdity. There could be no Something without Nothing and there could be no Nothing without Something. In fact, if Nothing is “A,” then not-A would be much more than “Something”; it would be “Everything.”
We can now answer the Primordial Existential Question: why is there something rather than nothing? The answer is, there’s both. There must be both quite simply because there could not be one without the other. Each defines the other; each gives reality to the other. The universe exists, has always existed and will always exist because a reality without it – a condition of “nothing” all by itself – is just not possible. Simplex sigillum veri.
Where does the material for the Universe come from? It doesn’t “come from” anywhere. It has always existed because it is a logical impossibility for it not to exist. Why is the physical material of the Universe composed of the matter/energy/gravitational energy that observation describes? In a word, because it can be. It’s likely there are other universes with other material, other forms, other realities. This particular matter/energy/gravitational reality is ours.
(For further discussion of why our universe contains its particular material, and the possibility of other universes, see the sidebar: How Big is this Universe?)