You know what, fuck it, I'm just going to get straight into things. As a disclaimer, I want to reiterate that I don't think I'm some sort of genius who's the first one to think of these things: I'm just trying to whip up some food for thought. So, where better to start than with the nature of our universe, right? People often look towards the "big picture" in their search for God, the meaning of existence, and other such "big ideas"; they think about the vast tracts of empty space out there, they wonder how the universe began, and some even think about what may lie outside the universe.
What I like to do, however is look at the small picture-- and I'm talking really small. We tend define determine whether something exists or not based on that thing's complexity and its more basic component parts; we know that a chair exists, for example, because when we look at it through a high-powered electron microscope, we can see the individual atoms of which it is made. Furthermore, we determine that these atoms exist based on observations of their interactions with eachother. Using scientific theory, we deduced the existence of electrons, protons, and neutrons. Thus, we know the atom exists because it is made up of these component parts. However, if one were able to continue breaking down these particles into simpler components, and then breaking those components down even further, you would eventually arive at the simplest form of matter, a particle which literally can not be broken down any further and still be matter, energy or anything else; if it was broken down any further, it would simply cease to exist. How then, can we argue that this particle does exist? There is no reason it should exist: it is not made of anything, and therefore we can deduce that it is made of nothing. However, it clearly is not nothing; it must be something, because it is the building block of our entire universe.
The paradox here is that this simplest particle has no tangible property that distinguishes it from an empty space. Indeed, the only thing that DOES distinguish it from an empty space is that some undefinable force of the universe simply says that it exists. This idea has a ridiculous multitude of implications. The most important of these is that the universe exists only because SOMETHING decided to say that these simplest paricles exist, rather than deciding to leave the universe a matterless void. That same SOMETHING has decided to keep these particles in existence, at least for now. I have lots more to say along this line of thought, but that's enough for now. I'm tired. Please comment I'd like to see some discussion.