Cosmological Questions 
(Source: George E. Stoertz, May 14, 1992) 
 
Where could it all have come from? 
Why is there anything instead of nothing? 
In the distant future, will the remaining unanswered questions 
seem more trivial than these? 
Man's imagination will always be far ahead of the reality he 
discovers. 
For every new property of the universe that is revealed, 
someone will think of many, many exotic ways to mold that 
reality into something more weird and wondrous. 
-- George Stoertz, 1992 
 
If you have an uncaused God, why not an uncaused Universe? 
Something must have created the universe. But who created 
God? 
-- Paul Davies, 1983 
 
Why is there a universe for a mathematical model to describe? 
Why does the universe go to all the bother of existing? 
Is the unified theory so compelling that it brings about its own 
existence? 
Does it need a creator? 
Does he have any other effect on the universe? 
Who created him? 
-- Stephen Hawking, 1988 
 
Will the expansion of the universe continue forever, or will it 
eventually stop expanding and start to contract? 
-- Jamal N. Islam, 1984 
 
Is the universe open or closed? 
Will it all end in fire or in ice? 
Will everything fall back in on itself only to repeat the cycle? 
Will the last bits of matter and radiation disappear into a 
darkness that lasts forever? 
-- James Trefil, 1983 
 
Why is there something rather than nothing? Perhaps 'nothing' 
is unstable. 
-- Wilczek, 1980 
 
What is man? 
What is the nature of reality? 
Is the universe we inhabit a random accident or the outcome of 
a delicate selection process? 
-- Bell, 1980 
 
What happened at the instant of creation? 
-- James Trefil, 1984 
 
What made the world? 
Where did everything come from? 
-- Edward Tryon, 1984 
 
Did the universe have a beginning in time? 
Will it have an end? 
Is the universe bounded or infinite in spatial extent? 
-- S.W. Hawkings, 1984 
 
Do black holes exist? 
Are they important in the universe? 
How can we find them? 
-- J.B. Hutchings, 1985 
 
Why is the universe so large? 
Why does it contain fluctuations? 
What happens at the singularity predicted by Einstein's theory? 
Can a collapsing universe rebound Phoenix-like into another 
cycle? 
-- Martin J. Rees, 1981 
 
How did matter come to exist? 
How long will matter continue to exist? 
What force unites all interactions among matter and energy? 
Why does electrical charge appear in discreet units instead of a 
continuum? 
-- Leslie Lin, 1981 
 
How big is the universe? 
Is it finite or infinite in volume? 
How old is it? 
Is it evolving? 
If it had, or had not, a beginning in time, will it have, or have 
not, an end in time? 
-- The ultimate questions always asked by the man in the street 
 
What is matter? 
What is light? 
What is the nature of creation? 
What is the nature of life? 
-- Frank Shu, 1982 
 
What is up there? 
Where have we come from? 
What is our fate? 
What role do we play in the universe? 
-- Robert Wagoner, Donald Goldsmith, 1980 
 
Where did the cosmic material come from? 
Where is the antimatter? 
Why is the expansion so uniform? 
What happened in the beginning? 
How will it end? 
-- Paul Davies, 1981 
 
How did the physical universe come into being and how will it 
end? 
What is matter and how did it come to exist? 
How did the energy that powers the cosmos arise and how did 
it organize itself into the physical structures we now observe? 
Is the order we now perceive the product of random forces, or 
the product of special initial conditions? 
-- Paul Davies, 1983 
 
"My goal is a complete understanding of the universe, why it is 
as it is and why it exists at all." 
-- Stephen Hawkings, 1984 
 
The Big Four Questions: 
Why are the laws of nature what they are? 
Why does the universe consist of the things that it does? 
How did these things arise? 
How did the universe achieve its organization? 
-- David Bohm, 1983 



Return to front page

Would you like to send William Stoertz your comments ?