Abstract: If, as the theist maintains, God is a being who exists of necessity, his existence explains why there is something rather than nothing. However, a less demanding explanation is also possible: not that there is some particular being that has to be, but simply that there has to be something or other. Reasons are given in favour of this weaker claim, and it is then argued that if anything at all exists, the physical exists. The priority of the physical is supported by eliminating rival contenders: the supernatural is dismissed, and while other forms of being, notably the abstract and the mental, are not reducible to the physical, they presuppose its existence. The question whether ultimate explanations can be given is forever in the background, and the book concludes with an investigation of this issue and of the possibility that the universe could have existed for an infinite time. Other topics discussed include causation, verification, essence, existence, spirit, force, fine tuning, and laws of Nature.

Keywords: causation, essence, existence, explanation, fine tuning, God, mind, necessity, spirit, time