what caused the dense matter to exist and proceed to the "big bang"?

Answer 1

what benmarder2004 says is wrong. The Big Bang did not happen because of the Universe so-called "compressing". The theory used to be that the Universe expands and contracts and that after the big bang expands enough, it will compress again. Scientists now have abandoned that theory and say the Universe will not "compress" again.

In reality, we are incapable of knowing why there was such a dense material there. Religion will say that God put it there.

Answer 2

There were no matter before the Big Bang. What the Big Bang released is energy. Then the universe expanded and cooled and the energy condensed into electrons and protons. After further cooling, the free electrons and protons condensed further into about 75% hydrogen and 25% helium maybe with a trace of other stuff. Then gravity took over and gathered these early elements into Stars. Everything beyond these light elements up to Iron are produced as by products of fusion in the Stars. Anything heavier than Iron is produced during the Supernova at the end of the Star's life. All the newly created heavy matter are scattered during the Supernova (think very big explosion) and then they are condensed by gravity into planets and other stars. So we are made of star dust, literally

Science is different from religion. Science requires affirming predictions. If faith is the determining factor in science then String Theory would have been proclaimed the solution to unifying all of the forces. Unfortunately scientists have yet to predict anything with String Theory and thus it remains a speculative theory. Scientist do not take anything on FAITH.

Now as to what is before the Big Bang, science has no answer for it. Does that then require the existence of a God? It is kind of like the good old days when we don't know why it rained or how thunder and lighting are produced. So we assigned gods to them. Heck, before Christianity we have gods for all sort of stuff. It has always been the human way to explain the not-yet-explainable thing. And since we are talking about science, let me ask one question. If God created the universe, then who/what created God? How did God come into being?

Answer 3

Gravity was a key player. The two standing theories on the universe is that after a time of expansion if the galaxies arent moving fast enough gravity will take over and compress everything back together. Imagine everything in the universe being condensed to something very small maybe the size of the moon and about 1billion degrees Centigrade. Eventually it couldn't compress anymore and something had to give. The best example I can think of is trying to compress water like in a car engine. Water compresses horribly and when somethign trys to it causes the piston head to crack or even the block. Now imagine something with trillions and trillions the amount of mass and WHAM. hope this helps

Answer 4

No one knows how the matter came to exist. And as far as to what drove the actual expansion of the Big Bang, it is partly due to the temperatures, but other than that it is not known.

Answer 5

I've often wondered that myself. Here's another question. Where did the universe come from? We are told that there was space, then there was condensed matter at the center. Where did matter come from and why was it spinning? No one has the answers to these questions. You just have to have FAITH that science is right!

Answer 6

I think it's funny that we ask questions like these. We after all just guessing that there was a big bang. That's what science is all about, "educated guesses".
How can we ask questions like these when our minds cannot comprehend things like infinity and nothingness?

Answer 7

Gottfried Leibniz asked a similar question in the 17th century and Heidegger opined it the most significant question in philosophy. Leibniz asked, " Why is there something rather than nothing?" So far the question is unanswered.

Answer 8

Genesis 1:1 Pretty simple to accept, impossible to comprehend. If God wanted us to know the physics involved in how He created matter from nothing, he would have written it down. With our finite brains, we wouldn't understand it anyway. :)

Answer 9

I've wondered exactly the same thing, and if anyone could answer that they'd be as close to God as one could be and still walk among us. Any men/women of science here that can help?