What, if anything, existed before the Big Bang?

[AviatorTom]

Whether you believe in Creation, the Big Bang, or some other theory about how and why the universe exists, one question always seems to come up.

It deals with the beginning, how it all started. Or maybe it didn't start at all.

The most common scientific theory is that there was a singularity that expanded in an event called the Big Bang.

The most common religious theory is that a god (or gods) created everything.

Regardless of which you may believe, the question always is "What happened before that first thing?"

Today's question deals with the scientific theory.

If the Big Bang created the universe, what existed before that? Where did that singularity come from?

Check out this post that asks a similar question for the religious theory of Creation.

If god created everything, who created god?

[Anonymous]

The Bounce Theory


The short way of explaining is 2 ways, at the end of a cycle the universe is overwhelmed by its own size that the dark energy theorised to be the cause of its expansion cannot expand the universe, causing for the universe shrink, of course it could be over trillions of years maybe unfathomably longer for it to be its smallest, during this time the universe would heat up especially once it really starts getting small, but once it does the implosion will be back by such speed and have so much force at all the mass of the universe, every atom (predicted to be a 1 sexvigitillion atoms or 1^81 or if you wanna see how crazy big the number is it looks like this: 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) all falls into once singularity, in that stupidly small amount of time the universe will be at its hottest, and its brightest, and the atoms will counter that force with expansion causing the big bang again.


The other way it could happen is basically the same, the bigger a single is the more unstable it is, especially the universe since its 99% empty space, the expansion is slowed by the gravity of its own mass, and the constant expansion is given through the momentum found from the big bang itself

[Opinion Owner]

as of what came before technically there is no reason we or anything exists in can't put it into words or explain how but i try to imagine it and its as equally discomforting and scary as it is warm and peaceful trying to imagine what its like to not exist

[lightbulb27]

The answer is of course... everything existed before the universe... it was just in a different form.

My vote is the 'other' universe (s). I suspect the big bang is just a hole where everything squeezed through... and still is, until the other side wears out of energy. Then our universe implodes and squeezes through to another, and cycle repeats. It's just energy moving around... which is what we call God, or maybe Gods father... haha!

But I could be suspecting wrong, I ain't that bright. I'm only a 60 watt bulb...

I've often wonderd... is our universe just a cell in a greater organism... no different than one of our cells... a tiny spec within something bigger.

[Kayla45]

Well it’s a human theory, there’s no possible way to know because it’s believed to have “occurred” so long ago that we can only make rough guesses about how the universe formed.

It could be much older, as in always existed, we have no definitive explanations as to where it all started.

I'm religious, personally I think God created everything. For me it’s an easier to believe in creation, and if on the off chance I’m wrong, well what do I lose? Nothing that’s what, if I’m right then I’ll go to Heaven. It’s literally a win situation.

[juliammm]

The theory evolves with our knowledge.

I liked the old theory of the bigbang / bigcrush / bigbang... However since we found out the expansion is going faster, this theory was abandoned.

Will this theory come back with the recent discovery of huge black holes?

[OlderAndWiser]

This is another question where i assume that my human brain and limited experience make me incapable of understanding.

[Ladsin2]

www.amazon.com/.../1451624468
A relatively short book that explains the concept somewhat. Pretty interesting.

[purplepoppy]

The singularity was simply the Universe with all space removed. Even the densest materials today are actually mostly space at an atomic level. I think that singularity was a pre existing Universe that collapsed under it's own gravity in much the same way a star collapses to form a black hole.

[Kelley1]

It is hard to imagine infinity. Therefore, it is impossible to know the answer to your question. It seems to me that nothing should exist--neither life, space, time, matter, or energy. However, it does and since matter and energy can neither be created nor destroyed if follows that matter and/or energy must have always existed. That implies there is no beginning. Therefore, entropy should be at a maximum but it is not.

I also cannot imagine that the big bang was created out of nothing. However, how can it be explained that entropy is not at a maximum. Perhaps it can be explained if their is a created outside of energy and matter that always existed. I can't imagine that.

[buzzword]

You realize that Big Bang Theory was created by the Catholic priest Father Georges Lemaître who began formulating this theory in 1927. It was considered scientifically unconvincing at the time, but since it's inception other physicists have built upon the ideas of a religious man to expand on the theory. It is still not proven, and depends largely on faith in a Christian idea.

[Ladsin2]

I'll just answer the same as I did on the last version of this question but without the portion on theism.

Lawrence Krauss is a cosmologist who wrote a pretty interesting book called "A Universe From Nothing: Why There's Something Rather Than Nothing." In it he explains that what we call "nothing" is actually something. When you remove every "thing" from a space it is naturally unstable. If you remove the protons, neutrons, electrons, quarks, and all of matter that makes up every thing that is a thing there's still something left behind. This is what cosmologists call Dark Matter, or WIMPs. This weak energy is so prevalent that it's actually the most prevalent force in the universe and it's what we would call "nothing". As such it may in fact be the case that "nothing" is a highly unstable state of being and would naturally give birth to something.

[Babygirl_S]

I think it’s all cyclical instead of linear. The end leads to the beginning and vice-versa. Like we have created AI, which will in turn create us when we will be gone. The more advanced AI becomes, the more I believe it will have god-like potential.

[Amy10223]

God has been, and will always be in existence. Omnipresent. No matter the Big Bang theory. That was His creation.

[coxoabean]

I agree 100%

[Amy10223]

@coxoabean :))

[jshm2]

The singularity existed. For how long it existed is not something that can ever be measured.

[Dargil]

G0d was the beginning. There was nothing before G0d.

[DJB72]

What makes you believe that "time" as we understand it existed before creation?

[exitseven]

The first law of thermodynamics is that matter can neither be created or destroyed.

[goaded]

It can be changed into energy.

[exitseven]

@goaded yes, that is in the two someplace too

[Kelly6]

@AviatorTom How is big bang not same as whats told in religion?

[AviatorTom]

@Kelly6 That's the purpose of the two questions posted. Are they logically the same, or different. Religious people tend to accept only Creation and discount the Big Bang, while others typically prefer the Big Bang theory, and some acknowledge that Creation might be possible.

[Anonymous]

another universe that was started and restarted by God

[jahaims]

A beginning and end is a human concept. We just assume everything has a beginning and ending.

[gatixek710]

Our brains are too small to understand any of this.

[Bricealan]

GAG?