Why does the world exist?

Why is there a world rather than nothing at all? This question remains the most curious and most enduring of all metaphysical mysteries. Moving away from the narrower paths of Christopher Hitchens, Roger Penrose and Stephen Hawking who insist that science alone is capable of explaining how our cosmos came into being, the author enters this debate as he examines our efforts to grasp the origins of the universe. He takes on the role of cosmological detective, and traces the riddle of existence from the ancient world to modern times, suggesting that we might have been too narrow in limiting our…