Will we know why had universe began, why there is something instead of nothing.
"There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable.
There is another theory which states that this has already happened."
- Douglas Adams
There is no reason, it’s just random shit causing random shit. If random shit happens on the universes timescales of billions and trillions of years then cool stuff is bound to happen eventually. There’s no rhyme or reason for it.
Empirical observation can get you the what and the how, but I don’t think it will ever tell you the why. Who says there even is a why?
The difference between “how” and “why” doesn’t seem very meaningful to me. For example- why does water boil? It boils because molecules gain enough energy through heat to transition states.
In that same sense, OP’s question
why there is something instead of nothing.?
There’s a non zero chance that we eventually understand the mechanisms behind the big bang and can explain how nothing turned into something. Therefore we will be able to explain the why, no?
The problem with the question of why is that you can always ask why again. Say we do understand the mechanism of the big bang. You can still ask “why” about why things are that way. Which is why in my view that’s still more of a “how?” “Why” is more of a question for philosophers than scientists imo.
But is that not the same way with “how”?
How do objects fall to the ground? → the Earth exerts a gravitational force on them
How does Earth exert a gravitational force? → All objects with mass create a gravitational field that attracts other masses
How do objects create a gravitation field? → Mass warps spacetime and this curvature directs objects to follow paths towards the source of the mass
and so on, etc
Asking “why” only makes sense in the context of a conscious decision, unless you accept something like “because the Big Bang happened” as an answer.
It has been said here already but I will say it again, there is no why. Why is a human thing, perhaps an animal thing, at least it is connected to conscious thought. When it rains you do not ask why you can only research how. This is a difficult lesson, we live in a human culture and so feel comfort in being able to ask why people do things as well as how. Not having the why attribute for the physical universe feels cold and inhuman, but the universe is inhuman, even if it’s difficult that is the deal.
Wait, is the big “Why,” with a capital W, just us personifying nature? We’re such social animals that we need to personify everything. People looking for a WHY are ultimately just expecting nature to act like a human being! We’ve evolved as social animals. We need to be used to thinking of actions having causes. Nothing just happens in a social community. If your food stores are suddenly and unexpectedly low, someone stole them. Oh, that nice tool/weapon? You got it from your brother-in-law. You owe him. We have evolved in environments where we need to keep social scores and disperse responsibilities. It’s in our literal, social, and cultural DNA to attribute actions in our environment to people.
But then we also end up applying that to nature. It’s pareidolia at a cultural level. And so we ask Why, with a capital W. Some might make fun of the ancients for personifying forces of nature and raisin them up as Gods. But we’re no different. We do the same damn thing. We’ve just replaced the Gods with “Why.”
