Robert Krulwich

Well, according to Jim, what we think happens, and this admittedly is a gross oversimplification, but in these fields, you're going to get these little fluctuations, these little events, right?

Sudden hiccups of energy, little bursts, and that's where stuffiness flickers into existence.

But it's a very flickering existence.

Stuff isn't permanent.

I don't know if Jim would call a rock like Bishop Barclay did a thought in the mind of God, but he might say that deep down what a rock is is an expression of rules or math.

It's just here like a shadow of an idea.

Are you increasingly convinced that the reason you can clap, the reason you don't fall through the floor, the reason that gravity works is all because of certain ideas that govern?

Ideas rule the world.

I don't know why this makes you so happy.

I mean, here, I would love, if I'm clapping or if I'm hitting someone in the face, I would love to think the billiard ball of me is hitting the billiard ball of them, and that explains what's going on.

Yeah, but your spiritual realm, it's literally empty.

And that mystery, how you go from the most basic things, or actually the most basic nothings, to everything we see around us.

It also explains why when I head-butted him with my very strong forehead, he seemed to think of it as a fascinating thought.

Special thanks to Jim Holt, who, actually, we were both too shy to ever headbutt each other until we came over to try it.

But anyway, he has a wonderful, the book is called Why Does the World Exist?

An Existential Detective Story.