What was before the universe?

Question

Everything must have a starting point so what was there before the universe?

Answer 1

theories abound but in actuality that will forever be unknowable

Answer 2

What we see of the Universe is just a fraction of the whole. We know this is true, because we see new material every day, as our event horizon expands to include new regions. How much bigger? The standard theory of early inflation suggests that it is a whole lot bigger: 10^20 times bigger in radius, at least. All that material was part of our Big Bang. The nature of early inflation suggests a theory where there are many Big Bangs, that condense out of the inflating medium. These "other Universes" would be forever unreachable by us, and there may be an infinite number of them.

Furthermore, the process of an inflationary medium spawning Big Bangs could be "past eternal", which is to say, the process went on indefinitely into the past. It would then have no starting point, in contradiction to your assertion that everything must. People have no problem with an eternal future, but they seem to have a lot of difficulty with an eternal past. Given the time-symmetries of physics, an eternal past may not be such a problem. Furthermore, when universes are being created that have no causal connection (and will never have a causal connection), the logic of cause-and-effect may not hold.

Answer 3

Before the galaxies and nebula's and such the universe must have been void. How much area this void covered is anyones guess but is God's knowledge. Heaven as the bible describes it was created before the earth so that would include the universe.

The bible speaks of the angels rejoicing when the witnessed the stars being made. So was all the stuff of the universe in one place at one time as an extreamly heavy dust ball? Dont know.

Is it possible that it started by chance and some sort of implosion caused an explosion? Yes.

Is it possible that it was spoke into being by a Being that had the power to do so? Yes.

Is it possible that man can make up any hypothesis based on his own observation? Yes.

With God all things are possible, and man is trying to make himself God. So man is trying to make all things possible, hense so many theories.

Answer 4

nothing. the universe started with everything packed into a point so small it barely existed (called a singluarity). this then exploded outwards, and has kept on expanding, to form the universe we know now.

there is, of course, the quantum question of whether the universe existed at all before there was anyone around to notice it.

but, in the traditional view, before the universe there was nothing (the same sort of nothing that is outside the universe). There is no before, there was no time before the universe, time and matter began to exist with the start of the universe, and so there was no before.

Answer 5

Get out of town!

So the theory goes, the Big Bang Theory, the universe began with a "big bang".

Since there is no evidence, no observation available to give even a hint of a clue as to what might have been before the universe came into being, then there is no answer to your question.

Furthermore, the universe is "everything" of the physical world, as far as scientists can determine. So, from a logical point of view, you cannot intelligently ask what was there before.

You need to do more research before asking questions which have no answer.

Answer 6

actually check out www.space.com as there are now new theories beginning to be formulated that there was something before the Big Bang. It goes something like this ........

It may be possible to glimpse before the supposed beginning of time into the universe prior to the Big Bang, researchers now say.

Unfortunately, any such picture will always be fuzzy at best due to a kind of "cosmic forgetfulness."

The Big Bang is often thought as the start of everything, including time, making any questions about what happened during it or beforehand nonsensical. Recently scientists have instead suggested the Big Bang might have just been the explosive beginning of the current era of the universe, hinting at a mysterious past.

To see how far into history one might gaze, theoretical physicist Martin Bojowald at Pennsylvania State University ran calculations based on loop quantum gravity, one of a number of competing theories seeking to explain how the underlying structure of the universe works.

Past research suggested the Big Bang was preceded by infinite energies and space-time warping where existing scientific theories break down, making it impossible to peer beforehand. The new findings suggest that although the levels of energy and space-time warping before the Big Bang were both incredibly high, they were finite.

Scientists could spot clues in the present day of what the cosmos looked like previously. If evidence of the past persisted after the Big Bang, its influence could be spotted in astronomical observations and computational models, Bojowald explained.

However, Bojowald also figures some knowledge of the past was irrevocably lost. For instance, the sheer size of the present universe would suppress precise knowledge of how the universe changed in size before the Big Bang, he said.

"It came as a big surprise that some properties of the universe before the Big Bang may have only such a weak influence on current observations that they are practically undetermined," Bojowald said of findings detailed online July 1 in the journal Nature Physics.

One implication of this "cosmic forgetfulness," as Bojowald calls it, is that history does not repeat itself-the fundamental properties of the current era of the universe are different from the last, Bojowald explained. "It's as if the universe forgot some of its properties and acquired new properties independent of what it had before," he told SPACE.com.

"The eternal recurrence of absolutely identical universes would seem to be prevented by the apparent existence of an intrinsic cosmic forgetfulness," he added.

These findings differ from a cyclic model of the cosmos from cosmologist Paul Steinhardt at Princeton and theoretical physicist Neil Turok at Cambridge, which envisions an infinite series of Big Bangs preceding our universe caused by additional membranes or "branes" of reality perpetually colliding and bouncing off each other. Steinhardt said he felt Bojowald's calculations were concrete, but needed further elaboration to include the interplay of different kinds of matter and radiation.

Cosmologist Carlo Rovelli at the Center of Theoretical Physics in Marseilles, France, found it "remarkable" that the new work could delve past the Big Bang. He added the work had to lead to predictions that could be compared to cosmological observations "in order to become credible."

Answer 7

The universe had a starting point, but it does not follow from that that anything was before. Indeed, since the Universe is all of time and space that there is, it contains every single point of spacetime and thus there's no such thing as "before" it.

Answer 8

Hello,

(ANS) Before our universe came into existence there only existed the "Primal Void" and this is where everything comes from and also returns too.

ALL religion's are an attempt to explain that which cannot be explained, the primal void is beyond man made religions and is essentially the final mystery.

(thank goodness, something that man kind cannot tinker or change or otherwise pollute).

IR

Answer 9

I strongly believe that before this universe was nothing, not even time, none of the laws of physics existed before Big Bang.

Answer 10

Isn't it wonderful how people answer a fundamental question with one word? If you feel comfortable believing in a universal creator, go ahead. But there will never be any proof, no matter who says they already know the answer.

Answer 11

This question cannot be answered.

No matter what anyone postulates or believes, no one knows and no one will ever know the true answer - that's a fact!