Why does space exist?

Existance of Space

Without "space" we would have no place to "exist".

It can also depend on how you look at it and what you belive in, as many people belive that space, the planets and the whole universe were created by the "Big Bang" while others say that the universe and space were made by God in 7 days.

Perhaps another way to look at it is to say that space doesn't exist at all. Space is nothing in and of itself, rather it is the absence of anything (or everything) else.

Here are more comments from WikiAnswers contributors:

• The above answer touches base on some very important points, but none hit the nail on the head, nor is it possible for them to. even "empty space" contains something. for instance; time, space, distance, width, emptines.... all sorts of things. If it contains nothing, it is "full" of nothing. As a matter of fact, it is so full of nothing, that you couldn't fit any more nothing inside. Unless of course, you put in something, which displaces a certain amount of nothing, which ends up where that something was. Try to instead look at it this way; you percieve space to exist, but you have been fooled before, so all you are left with is the ability to percieve, and the ability to exist. If you exist, you represent a quantative value, whether it is real or envisioned. At this crossroad you realize that space must exist at the very minimum so that you yourself can exist, and you exist to percieve space.

In short... space exists to support existence, as existence exists to support space.

Space IS existence. And from our perspective, Existence IS space.

• Space does not contain time, width etc, these are relative, subjective human concepts. And time is not a substance, in physics it is a function of mathematics, ie velocity over time = distance. A manmade constuct to quantify the cosmos, nothing more.

• This is an irresistible question, isn't it? I'll suggest another 'take' on it. The very concept of "why-ness" is so human-- it's a fluke of human intelligence. It's not bad. It's just a side-effect of being human. It is ingrained in us that things are always, and must be "caused". It's connected to our ability to be self-reflective. We start out as infants as the centers (and gods) of our own comfy little universes. We are then confronted with the reality of independent THINGS outside of ourselves, and we make connections to continue to get our needs met. At some point we learn that we don't have complete control, we can interact with people and things in such a way to 'cause' things. Then comes the shocking realization some time during childhood that we are going to die someday, and it is inevitable. We keep making connections, and searching until we get a view of it all that makes 'sense'.

Maybe we are watching unfold before us, in the form of the strangeness of Quantum Theory, the breakdown of the "why" concept. Maybe people in the distant future will look back on our times and think of our "why" thing as quaint and antiquated.

Impossible, you say? Here is an example of a thought process (not merely a fact) that is no longer given any weight. I can't stress strongly enough that this is NOT an invitation to theological debate-- it is not the theological or religious ideas that I am critiquing here-- they may or may not be true. I am looking critically at a thought process and concluding that it has no creditility whatever in the 21st century.

This was a system used by medieval scholars to solve various theological and religious questions. When confronted with a question on which scripture, tradition and teaching were not clear, scholastic philosophers developed this test: As an example, take the conception of Mary in her mother Elizabeth's womb. Was Mary conceived without the stain of Original Sin? The scholastic philosophers found no direct evidence, but they argued that since Mary was to bring forth Jesus, then it would be a good and proper thing for God to have arranged, so that the Savior would not be brought into the world through a sinful vessel. They then wondered if this was something that God could have done (Now of course their belief was that God can do all things, but He would not do evil, or force a person to do evil). They concluded that God could very well have arranged for Mary to be conceived without her being stained by Original Sin. Therefore, God DID it. Now the truth of the religious belief is NOT in question here. But the logic of the scholastic philosophers IS. "It is a good thing in and of itself, it is possible for God to have done it, therefore he DID it." This was so clear and powerful to the medieval mind. It was irrefutable, clear and authoritative reasoning. But the reasoning process would not hold water today.

I believe that "why" is going down the same path as "he could, therefore he did".

Why space exists

Space exists because it is a part of what we call spacetime. As regards the universe as a whole, space and time are inseperable. They are spacetime. That's why space exists. Spacetime is believed to have been created by the Big Bang. Don't believe in the Big Bang? Dream up your own mechanism for how things began. But it really doesn't matter. There is no doubt that spacetime is here now. We live in it, and everything we see exists in it. The debate died a long time ago.

The reason for space is to keep the planets,stars and satellites floating around.

First answer by Gooding. Last edit by Quirkyquantummechanic. Contributor trust: 621 [recommend contributor]. Question popularity: 87 [recommend question]