Great Sci Am article. Raises the issue of we have no idea why constants have the values they have, and there is evidence that the fine structure constant may vary slightly across the universe:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=inconstant-constants-jan-12&WT.mc_...
Please remember, we have no knowledge where the laws of nature came from, either, just that we find the consistencies that make underlying laws obvious.
Constants are typically relationships derived because "they have to be there" in order for the equations to work. They can be anything from errors to physical realities, depending on how experiment pans out.
I know you dislike Stenger, but without doubt his book that opened me up to "point of view invariance" demonstrated that all physical laws can be derived from the singularity. The only thing unexplainable is the singularity. (To be clear: You are correct. But we do know quite a bit!)
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\"Why is it, Master, that ascetics fight with ascetics?\"
\"It is, brahmin, because of attachment to views, adherence to views, fixation on views, addiction to views, obsession with views, holding firmly to views that ascetics fight with ascetics.\"