Stephen Hawking

quote of some of the most important questions the human race needs answered long term asked by Stephen Hawking from a Larry King Live Show on CNN:

"To understand the universe at the deepest level, we need to know not only how the universe behaves but why?

Why is there something rather than nothing?

Why do we exist?

Why this particular set of laws and not some other?" end quotes of Stephen Hawking's questions.

Since I have found that the most intelligent people are not necessarily the ones who can answer these questions but the ones who can formulate the right questions  I postulate them here for anyone to give a try at answering these questions.

Real Joy in life comes from feeling satisfaction at the answers you personally come to regarding these questions. It is debatable whether the human race will ever completely agree on the answers to these questions. And maybe that's a good thing?

So if I ask the question "Why do we exist?" My answer that comes up from my instinct, experience and intuition is:

Because we can

If you look at any creature on earth and why it exists, it exists because it can. If we want to take it any further than that at present it isn't likely that we could agree. But I don't think anyone would disagree with the statement that

"All creatures including humans exist in the universe because they can."

So one answer to "Why is there something and not nothing?" would be:

There is something because it CAN exist. If it couldn't exist (given the laws of the universe) then it wouldn't.

But then if we ask, "What is existence?" then this is a much more difficult question to answer because the answer might be different for every different being in the universe every moment of every day or night. So, trillions of answers later what would we have? I know that I can barely deal with my own momentary answers each moment of each day. Because they generally range between, "Heaven. Hell. boring. happy. cloudy. sunny. hot. miserable. good. bad.  So just like most people on earth at least, their assessment of what existence actually is any given moment might change.

But another way to answer "What is existence?" might be by looking at one's whole lifetime or all human history or all life that has existed on earth.

So, looking at one's whole lifetime one might (depending upon the person say)

That was amazing! or
How horrific was that short life or
I wouldn't want to do that again or
I miss my spouse now it's over or
I miss my family now it's over or
I miss my friend's now it's over or
Thank God That's over!

So, looking at all mankind's history one might say:
I can't believe all the crazy things that have happened to people
I'm proud to be a member of the human race
I hope we don't all go extinct soon after all the trouble everyone went to to keep us going
I'm proud to be a member of the human race and/or my nation, tribe, city, family etc.

"Why this particular set of laws and not another?"

I have often asked myself this question when traveling to someplace like the Grand Canyon or visiting the Himalayas and looking up at 26,000 to 29,000 foot peaks and climbing at about 10,000 feet 25 miles from the nearest road, or being on the ocean in a boat or ship. I have always felt an ocean as big as the Pacific Ocean as quite amazing, for example. In other words, "How amazing is this?" So "Why this particular set of laws and not another?"

In the end trying to learn another set of laws might be pretty difficult for all life in the universe wherever it is. I think we'll just go with this set of laws, Thank you.

I don't know if anyone will ever find a satisfactory answer to this last question.

So, if you follow me my most important answer would be: "All life in the universe creates what happens every moment any of us are aware. So, de facto, we are all the God that creates the universe every moment. Eventually, if one is intelligent enough and brave enough one will naturally come to this conclusion given enough time and experience. Or you might come to a completely different conclusion.
So, don't expect the whole human race to agree on this either.

So, why do we ask these questions? Because asking questions is what got us this far and allowed us to survive everything life on earth has experienced  up to now.