Jim Holt (philosopher). Why does our world exist? Existential Detective (№ 427568)

Compared with the eternal cosmos in the view of the ancients, our own universe is rather new: it is about 14 billion years old. And its future may also have a limit. According to modern cosmological concepts, after a long existence, it is destined either to suddenly disappear as a result of the Great Compression, or gradually turn into a dark and cold Nothingness. The temporary finiteness of our world (today it is, yesterday it was not yet, and tomorrow it will not be) makes its existence unreliable and dependent on circumstances - as well as mysterious. It seems that a world that stands on a solid ontological foundation should not behave in this way, but should be eternal and imperishable. Such a world, unlike the finite universe of the Big Bang, would look self-sufficient and could even contain the reason for its own existence.