This question is the beginning of everything — that is why it is Station I of the journey. It assumes nothing, so you can start right here. You can read the answer below word for word, exactly as it appears in the journey.
Imagine you are sitting on a chair in a completely empty room. Suddenly, out of nothing, a Japanese cherry blossom tree appears before you.
Do you think this is possible?
Of course not. This brings us to one of the most fundamental questions of existence:
Can something come from nothing?
The answer, of course, is no. If there is no matter, no energy, no space and no cause, then absolutely nothing can happen. For from nothing, nothing comes. Things do not simply appear. So if everything we see around us exists — stars, planets, trees and people — then something must have caused their existence.
But what about our universe? Can we draw the same conclusion here, that it too was created by something else? Or was it perhaps always there? Or is it perhaps part of an endless chain of causes? That is what we will find out in the next part.