<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[The Dish]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[http://dish.andrewsullivan.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[Andrew Sullivan]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://dish.andrewsullivan.com/author/sullydish/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[Ask Jim Holt Anything: Why Is There Something Rather Than&nbsp;Nothing?]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[Why does the universe go through all the bother of existing? Why is there something rather than nothing? William James called this "the darkest question in all philosophy." For Wittgenstein, the world’s existence was cause for wonder. "It is not how things are in the world that is mystical," he declared, "but that it exists." ... I was brought up in a religious family, so the stock answer was that God made the world, and God himself existed eternally by his own nature. As a teenager I started to doubt this theological story. I became interested in existentialism and got my hands on a book by Heidegger called “An Introduction to Metaphysics.” The very first sentence was, "Why is there something rather than nothing?" I can still remember how the sheer poetry of it bowled me over. Ron Rosenbaum <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/the_spectator/2012/07/jim_holt_s_why_does_the_world_exist_an_inquiry_into_why_there_is_something_rather_than_nothing_.single.html">gives</a> the book a glowing review:]]></html></oembed>