How could nothing have existed before the big bang?

Question

I was watching a TV programme, last night on Discovery Science, called 'Universe', and it was discussing the origins of the universe. They said that before the big bang there was nothing, no matter and no time. Suddenly there was an explosion of energy (a reaction of nothing with other nothingness, perhaps?), and the process of the big bang began.

Don't you think that the idea of energy being created from nothing takes as much of a leap of faith as believing in creationism?

Bear in mind, I actually air on the side of science in most cases; for example, I believe in evolution. I just can't see the logic in something coming from nothing.

Just for reference, I DO believe in evolution. Being sceptical of the idea of the big bang doesn't affect my view of evolution at all.

Answer 1

Somewhere along the way there has been a mix-up. Either the producers of the show got it wrong or you misunderstood it, because we have no way of knowing what came before the Big Bang. See, the laws of physics all break down in a singularity, like a black hole (which is why black holes are so popular in Sci-Fi--anything is possible there, as far as we know). The Big Bang Theory states that at the time of the Big Bang, the entire universe was a singularity. But since the laws of physics, in the forms we know them, don't apply in singularities, we have no way to predict what effect events before the Big Bang might have on the modern universe, or to extrapolate backward and deduce what the universe was like before. Some scientists refer to the Big Bang as the beginning of time, but it was really the beginning of OBSERVABLE time.

Short version: anything which existed before the Big Bang would have no way to predictably affect the universe after the Big Bang, so we can't tell anything about it.

So there could have been matter and energy before which all crunched together into a singularity and then exploded--this is how some scientists envision the end of our universe. It's also possible, since all the other rules don't seem to apply to it, that maybe at the time of the Big Bang it was possible to create matter/energy.

Answer 2

I think Discovery Science overstepped their bounds if they said before the big bang, there was nothing. That isn't known or agreed upon. I like your idea of the reaction of nothing with other nothingness, but call it a reaction between nothing and anti-nothing.

I believe the Bible is truth and that God created the universe. But that is independent of my thoughts on the Big Bang theories. Bear with me.

If I know the bus was at 30th street 10 minutes ago and is at 50th street now, I can estimate that it was at 40th street 5 minutes ago. That's interpolation, and it's an excellent estimation method. If I estimate that it was at 10th street 20 minutes ago, that is extrapolation. That can be useful but it's much less reliable. Perhaps it turns on 20th street and has never been at 10th street during its entire existence. I can also predict that it was in Australia 2 weeks ago. That is extreme extrapolation.

We look at the universe and try to figure out how things are moving. If we assume that motion has been continuous, we can try to figure out where they were at some arbitrary time in the past. The farther back you go, the more you must depend on extrapolation and the less reliable your predictions.

The best we can do is propose a theory for consideration. If the universe was at one time an extremely dense concentration of matter and energy, it could have developed this way. When we apply everything we know and everything we think we know about condensed matter, we do the math, and today's universe is a possible outcome. The most optimistic outcome is a set of such theories that we can neither prove nor disprove.

This doesn't address the questions of where the matter and energy came from or what things were like 'before' the big bang. Nor does it answer whether God created it or whether it came about some other way. This could be how God created it. There are simply no purely scientific facts available to answer these questions.

The other alternative is that God created it in a form that's closer to what we see now. That doesn't take any more or less faith.

Answer 3

If we say all things that exist, which include space and time, do so within the Universe, then it is easy to say nothing existed before the big bang.

It would be more correct to say: we don't know what existed before the Big Bang. Science cannot handle any question before the Big Bang. In fact, at this point, Science can't handle the apparent singularity that existed before the Bang. (String Theory might fix that).

So, there really isn't any definitie thing that can be said about this question. It is all opinion, whether you invoke a creater, or pure happenstance.

In my opinion, I believe this is where one needs God to answer the question. Of course not everyone believes that, so it's whatever works for you.

Answer 4

According to the Big Bang theory what ever existed and all the energy was at single point. What was earlier is matter of speculation.The space around at the time of Big Bang was vacuum.The explosion is unlike a bomb which throws shrapnel all round. It is the explosion of space within itself. The temperatures at the time are unimaginable. Billion billion Degrees Kelvin. Initially what came out was plasma soup later quark soup.Baryons were first particles. Later particles were leptons. Later we had convectional protons,Neutrons and electrons. First element to form was deuterium an isotope of Hydrogen and so on. Let us agree that we need some theory to explain this universe. There is nothing final about this theory. Many findings of later scientists confirm the big bang predictions,such as microwave radiation received fro distant part of universe. Edwin Hubble is credited with this theory. The age of universe is calculated based on His theory alone.[distance of the Galaxy /velocity of galaxy which comes to 15 billion tears]. It is interesting for students of science. All questions are however not answered. I for one, a keen student of science and technology, ultimately fall back what I learned at school and from my parents and believe in a creator. You have rightly questioned how all this came out of nothing. This point remains unexplained.

Answer 5

I am a christian myself and do not believe in it,.. but i will tell you my theorys on what you are asking

THe big bang wasnt the beggining, there was obvioussly empty space for it to form everything in... thus being the universe... it wasnt the beggining by no means,,,,

And it had to start with something for a explosion to take place. thus making it not the start of all, and also theres so many galaxys and planets out there the big bang could not have possibly created an infinate amaount of solid matter.

Theres only one answer to everything, but i think you most liekyl wont like my theory : )

Answer 6

yes, as big of a leap of faith as believing in creationism. but that doesn't mean that evolution is bunk.

I just think that we don't really know what happened before the big bang. In my opinion, there was matter, time and space before the big bang. it was just all scunched up into a small volume. It got that way after the previous universe collapsed. What was outside of that small ball of matter? I don't know. Just vacuum, I guess.

Answer 7

First was the Big Bang. Then came matter and anti-matter. Then came everything else. We can use our science to go back to time > zero. We cannot get to time = zero. Because there wasn't any mathematice yet. At time = < zero, there was nothing. Better yet there was NO THING. To say there was nothing implies the lack of something. There was an endless formless, void - that cannot be explained because there were no words then. At time = < zero, scientists must become philosophers.

If you take all the positives in the universe, and add it to all the negatives we will get ZERO.

Answer 8

The exact origin of the big bang is not clear. We cannot peer pack past the beginning, so the nature of what was there will remain speculation. There are a number of well thought out hypotheses and no way to test them.

Answer 9

People believe in Evolution but not in spontaneous regeneration? Of course not. All of the elements to create galaxies and life came from an exploding sphere of energy, and it's still expanding today. Humans just can't except that there's a Creator.

Answer 10

Sometimes I wonder why we ponder something that will someday be proven wrong and that we can't prove today and most likely will have no effect in our lives, whatsoever.