WHY IS THERE SOMETHING INSTEAD OF NOTHING

Apparently the ultimate unanswerable question of all time is "why is there something rather than nothing". The definition of nothing is the total and absolute absence of anything. So why something rather than nothing? One answer is to say that there had to be something; that it would have been impossible for there to have been nothing. The 17th century philosopher Spinoza claimed that the entire universe, along with all its contents laws and events had to exist, and exist in the way it does. Theoretical physicist Laurence Krauss claims that our universe arose naturally and inevitably from the operation of gravity on the quantum vacuum, empty space had virtual particles that spontaneously arose into existence before disappearing. Other theories in cosmology seem to presuppose that there must always have been something in existence from which our universe arose, such as strings or membranes. The trouble with such scientific answers to the question of " why there is something and not nothing, is that it is not clear why we should think that there had to be gravity or the quantum vacuum, or strings, or even a universe at all. It seems entirely possible that instead of these things there could have been absolutely nothing. What if it were true that everything there is was always and forever was consigned to not ever happening. Imagine that not a single thing ever existed, not emptiness, or the meaning of blankness. If you can imagine that, now ask yourself why is there anything at all. You could ponder this question for all eternity and never have an answer.