What existed before the Big Bang?

Question

Any theories or clues?

Answer 1

Black hole.

Answer 2

Wine and candles at dinner, hopefully.

Answer 3

There are any number of concepts, but none of them can be scientifically verified, although some who post answers to this type of question present the concepts as though they're etched-in-stone facts.

When talking about either 'what' came before the Big Bang that created our universe, or 'what' lies beyond our universe there's no way that any of the myriad concepts can be invoked without either infinity, an absolute void, or some kind of metaphysical First Cause necessarily entering the picture.

One idea is that our universe has dimensions other than those we're familiar with. How many other dimensions? Six? Eleven? A billion? Assume that there are a hundred additional dimensions. That would leave us right back where we started -- what's beyond those hundred dimensions? The only answer is there must be an infinite number of dimensions.

Another notion is that our universe started when it collided with another universe. Okay, again the original question isn't answered because we're left still hung up on the original question -- what's beyond our universe and the one we collided with?

Then there's the idea that there's some 'mother' universe that spawns other universes. Back to the same question -- what's beyond this 'mother' universe? If there's nothing then it must be infinite.

By calling up Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle concepts have been developed stipulating that every time a decision is made, like you turn left instead of right at some crossroads, or an atom "decides" to decay, another universe branches off in which the opposite decision is made. Here again the question is 'where' or 'when' did such critical decisions begin? After the Big Bang? That puts us right back at square one -- what was before that?

Answer 4

The question is fundamentally flawed.

There *was* no "before" the Big Bang.

Answer 5

Science simply doesn't know. We can theorize, categorize, and hypothesize all the way back to a small fraction of a second after the event. But what happened before that, is where science and religion come together. We only believe that there was something that got the ball rolling and it could very well have been a supreme being behind it all. We simply don't know.

Answer 6

We have no idea for certain, but I recall hearing we may have been like we are now since after the universe expands it is supposed to reach a point (in theory) where it starts to contract again and all that material may form a massive star which explodes after a while.

Answer 7

chickens everywhere. really.

just joking.

I'm not sure.

but I'm sure of one thing,

chicken.

Answer 8

What bang?  I didn't hear a bang.

The only contribution to this from science that I know of is that the universe expands to a limit, then contracts.  When it contracts toward a limit, there is a big crunch that turns into the next big bang.  Stephen Hawking's book "A Brief History of Time" addresses this and proposes that such a contraction can't happen.  But the bottom line is that no one really knows.  Of course, we haven't known about the big bang all that long (45 years), so maybe there will be a new theory on this some day.

Answer 9

Jack N: "What bang? I didn't hear a bang."

Actually the echo of that "bang" is still around today.  The Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation is the "echo" (in a manner of speaking) of the Big Bang.  Of course you cannot hear it but with some fairly simple equipment you could.

As for what came before the Big Bang it is a meaningless question.  Not being mean, it is one most people ask sooner or later, but the answer is it is a question with no answer.  We cannot know.  It is like asking, "What is north of the North Pole?"

Remember that time itself came into existence in this universe at the moment of the Big Bang.  There is simply no "before".  I know that does not feel right but there it is anyway.

And current belief is that our universe will not reverse to a Big Crunch scenario but will rather expand forever.  So, the universe will die with a whimper and not a bang I'm sorry to say (if we wind the universe forward in time it will be a completely barren, lifeless place with no stars or planets or anything...just cold and barren).

Answer 10

This is an interesting question that you have asked.

I went to the Library, which you could do also. I found that there are no history books that were printed 4 1/2 Billion Years Ago. So I was unable to read up on that event (the history of the Big Bang) as might have been reported by various historians of that time.

Supposedly, everything we see about us was "created" at the instant of the big bang...not in the shape that we see it now, but actually created at that instant. Over time, things coalesced or got stuck together into bigger and bigger things such as rocks, large clumps of matter, and juge balls of gases. A lot of this stuff was very hot. Some of it was like hot lava, and eventually cooled off to form hard, crusty things like the rocks we see now.

As far as what when on before everything was created, for that answer I will have to ask Buba over there in the corner of the Bar. Bubba is real old and knows answers to almost everything. I will go buy him a few beers and see if he knows your answer. Talk to you again soon...

Oh, yeah, I almost forgot, I would be really interested in the scientific documents supporting any answers you get to this question. What references do your answerers quote from?

What authority do your answerers quote from?

Answer 11

Nothing. And nothing existed afterwards. And nothing existed during the 'Big Bang". Because It never happened.

God made the Heavens and the Earth. Simple as that.

Answer 12

no such thing.

Answer 13

Some question!   I think that the universe is alway repeating itself.  Look at all the black holes in all the galaxies, just eating up the stuff of the universe.  It seems obvious to me that this cycle goes on over and over.  After eons and eons, the stuff of the universe is finally concentrated in one great big black hole, which would actually be rather small, and after some time, after eating it all up, it once again explodes, starting it all over again.  Another Big Bang.    This universe is just one of many infinite bubbles, expanding and contracting near each other. So, more of the same, although who knows where or how it goes.   I think I know this.

Answer 14

i think a sort of blueprint or universal dna, what do you think?

Answer 15

As humans we cannot conceive the concept of "nothing"

so it is difficult to explain. Theorists can tell us ideas for what happened after 10-14 seconds  (Ten divided by 100000000000000) before that time temperatures and pressures were so high that the laws of physics breaks down.

However the theory says everything including time started at time zero. Before that there was no space, no time and no matter. Nothing, just nothing.

Answer 16

We don't know - our universe didn't exist, and we can't see outside our universe.  We may have formed inside another universe, or from the collapse of another universe, or in nothingness.

Answer 17

The Bible actually talks about the Universe expanding.. which does make the big bang theory make perfect sense.. just like an explosion, everything is flying away from the center...

"..his secrets the great expanse is telling."

I believe it was in Isaiah.

Here's a great article about the subject:

http://www.watchtower.org/e/19960122/art...