2007-04-27 07:49:09 · 5 answers · asked by Alexander 6 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Physics
Before and after are relative terms in time. Time and space came into existence along with the universe and what was before t = 0 cannot be solved by the present science.
2007-04-27 07:53:01 · answer #1 · answered by Swamy 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
There may have been something but there is no way to know, and it wouldn't have any meaning anyway. Before and after have to do with time. For us, time moves forward so that cause precedes affect. But time as we know it began at the Big Bang (according to the theory of the Big Bang). Nothing that may have been "before" the Big Bang has any affect on anything that came after it, so time before and after is scientifically and philosophically (in the secular sense) meaningless.
So the 2-cent answer to your question is no - 'before' did not exist until the Big Bang actually occured.
2007-04-27 08:01:10 · answer #2 · answered by USC MissingLink 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Science currently has absolutely no way of knowing the answer. By definition, "universe" is everything there ever was, is now, or ever will be. Until / If our science develops to such a point where we can observe any evidence of a 'before' the Big Bang, we're stuck with that defintion.
2007-04-27 08:01:35 · answer #3 · answered by Chug-a-Lug 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
This question is a bit of a conundrum as physics (Einsteinian) says time and space are inextricably intertwined. Our experience of course is constrained by time and thinking about something occurring 'before' when there was no time (because there was no space) is a bit tough. On the other hand, we live in a universe that is causal on the macroscopic level. You putt a golf ball and if all the conditions are correct, it goes in the hole. On the quantum level, things are much more complex and there is a randomness that is difficult to describe physically (and as a result, mathematically). Thus, Einstein's quote "God Does Not Play Dice" (implying with the universe). Heisenberg's uncertainty principle plays in here. In short, your question is the ultimate question but unfortunately the answer is not 42.
2007-04-27 08:02:13 · answer #4 · answered by LAR 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If the universe sprang from a singularity, no.
We don't know that it did, though. Only that the universe was once much, much smaller and much much hotter. At some point, the energies get so high, that we can't trust what we know now about physics.
I wouldn't expect an answer to this question in your lifetime.
2007-04-27 07:54:57 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋