Why does anything at all exist?

[tor]

This is what I want to know.

[Alex K]

What kind of answer would be satisfactory to you?

[tor]

Certainly not the one "Because you are here to ask the question" or "Why is there a universe? Because there is a universe".
I want to know why anything at all exists instead of absolutely NOTHING.

[Rayaan]

What kind of answer would be satisfactory to you?

A satisfactory answer.

[max-greece]

Possibly because something had to. According to Professor Krauss nothing(ness) is unstable in quantum physics. Particles and sub-particles are constantly appearing out of nothing.

I have to be honest and say I don't understand any of that - but that appears to be what physicists are saying for what its worth.

Right now I have to ask the question in return - what is wrong with saying we don't know?

We know the universe exists at some level - there's not much more we do know about it, certainly not the why's and the wherefore's.

I guess what I am saying is - we'd all like to know but however much we want to, we simply don't. There are theories (including God based ones) but they are all just that - theories.

[tor]

Then I could ask why does quantum physics exist instead of nothing.

[Alex K]

Then I could ask why does quantum physics exist instead of nothing.

That's true.

"Why" questions trick you into believing that they are valid questions, just because you can form them in the English language.
What exactly are you asking for when you ask "why"? Are you looking for a cause? Then you are out of luck, since cause and effect are only applicable in the macroscopic realm within our universe. A logical necessity of some sort? There may not be one, see why ontological arguments fail - they might fail for the universe as a whole just as they fail for god figures. Logical conclusions need premises or axioms, and you will be begging the question at some point.

[max-greece]

Then I could ask why does quantum physics exist instead of nothing.

I'm not sure it does, as such. It is merely the name for the method and attempts to describe certain phenomena.

In other words nothing(ness) is unstable and our explanation of that comes from the study referred to as Quantum Physics.

[tor]

Yeah but there are in fact laws there to begin which which spawn something. Why are there laws instead of nothing? Anyway I get it nobody knows. Never mind.

[rexbeccarox]

Attempts to answer "why" are more often futile than not.