Book contents
- Giving the Devil His Due
- Giving the Devil His Due
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction Who Is the Devil and What Is He Due?
- Part I The Advocatus Diaboli: Reflections on Free Thought and Free Speech
- Part II Homo Religiosus: Reflections on God and Religion
- Chapter 7 E Pluribus Unum for All Faiths and for None
- Chapter 8 Atheism and Liberty
- Chapter 9 The Curious Case of Scientology
- Chapter 10 Does the Universe Have a Purpose?
- Chapter 11 Why Is There Something Rather Than Nothing?
- Part III Deferred Dreams: Reflections on Politics and Society
- Part IV Scientia Humanitatis: Reflections on Scientific Humanism
- Part V Transcendent Thinkers: Reflections on Controversial Intellectuals
- Notes
- Index
Chapter 11 - Why Is There Something Rather Than Nothing?
Answering the Biggest Question of Them All
from Part II - Homo Religiosus: Reflections on God and Religion
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 February 2020
- Giving the Devil His Due
- Giving the Devil His Due
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction Who Is the Devil and What Is He Due?
- Part I The Advocatus Diaboli: Reflections on Free Thought and Free Speech
- Part II Homo Religiosus: Reflections on God and Religion
- Chapter 7 E Pluribus Unum for All Faiths and for None
- Chapter 8 Atheism and Liberty
- Chapter 9 The Curious Case of Scientology
- Chapter 10 Does the Universe Have a Purpose?
- Chapter 11 Why Is There Something Rather Than Nothing?
- Part III Deferred Dreams: Reflections on Politics and Society
- Part IV Scientia Humanitatis: Reflections on Scientific Humanism
- Part V Transcendent Thinkers: Reflections on Controversial Intellectuals
- Notes
- Index
Summary
This article grew out of my February 2017 Scientific American column titled “Imagine No Universe,” eventually expanding into a feature-length cover story for Skeptic, necessarily an order of magnitude longer to nuance the many possible answers to the question. As readers will discover, far from a famine of scientific and philosophic answers to the question, we have a veritable feast to dine on. Which will turn out to be more or less supported by empirical research in both particle physics and cosmology remains to be seen – and it could be many decades to a century before we have a solid grasp of the problem – but do not succumb to the theists’ transcendental temptation to evoke God as an answer in the teeth of so many elegant explanations already on our plate.
Keywords
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Giving the Devil his DueReflections of a Scientific Humanist, pp. 110 - 126Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020