Why this universe? Toward a taxonomy of possible explanations.(Essay) From: Skeptic (Altadena, CA) | Date: June 22, 2007| Author: | COPYRIGHT 2007 Skeptics Society & Skeptic Magazine. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.Copyright information

WHEN I WAS 12, IN THE SUMMER BETWEEN seventh and eighth grades, a sudden realization struck such fright that I strove desperately to blot it out, to eradicate the disruptive idea as if it were a lethal mind virus. My body shuddered with dread; an abyss had yawned open. Five decades later I feel its frigid blast still.

Why not Nothing? (1) What if everything had always been Nothing? Not just emptiness, not just blankness, and not just emptiness and blankness forever, but not even the existence of emptiness, not even the meaning of blankness, and no forever Wouldn't it have been ...