Why existence? Why is there something rather than nothing? Why are we even here at all.We know a lot about the “how” and the “What” of our existence, but we don’t know much about the “why” of our existence…yet it may be the most important question of all, maybe even the most important question in the Universe. Why are we here? Most people in the world believe that God created the universe. Many religions explain the “why” of existence in some variation of the anthropic principle, that is, a universe made for the special existence of human beings, or of earth. But, it is possible if not inevitable that we will find life elsewhere in the Universe, and these explanations will not be complete. So for the moment, let’s explore explanations that could be applied regardless of the existence of God. SoLet’s first look at what we have – we have a Universe with sentient conscious beings – us – that are here asking this question. These beings have determined that the Universe seems to obey a certain set of laws using the principles of mathematics. Laws like Newton’s law of gravity. Einstein’s laws of relativity. And Max Plank’s laws of quantum physics. We know this because our experiments have consistently shown this to be true. So now we can ask the question, why are there these laws? Why not some other laws? Are these laws just arbitrary – meaning they exist only in this Universe. And a different set of laws could exist in an alternate universe. Could other laws have existed if we had been in a different Universe? Why are there any laws at all? Why not no laws? And why should these laws be able to be expressed in mathematics – a language that we mere humans happen to comprehend? To answer this, I am going to borrow shamelessly from Jim Holt’s Ted talk on why the universe exists. I encourage you to check it out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zORUUqJd81M The simplest form of existence would be nothing. What could be simpler than