I am confused as to how one can look back in time to near the origin of the big bang.?

Question

I understand that as we look at stars that we are seeing what happened in the passed due to the time that it took light to reach us. My confusion arises from the fact that at the time of the big bang, all mass was concentrated in a single point. Thus the mass of the star that we are observing and the mass of earth were at the time of the big bang at the same location and then separated at the big bang at a speed less than that of the speed of light. Thus if we look back at an object that is a billion light years away from us, then it must have taken more than a billion years for the particles that originated from the big bang to be separated by a billion light years. (This assumes that the particles raced away from each other at the speed of light). Thus when we see back in time we can never see before the time that it took for the particles to become separated by billion light years. Help!

Answer 1

Your statement would be true if the expansion of the universe was constant. However, current thinking is that there was a period of very rapid expansion immediately after the "big bang" (inflation theory) which allowed particles to become separated at greater distances than would normally be allowed by the speed of light.

Answer 2

I think when people say they are looking back to the time of the big bang, what they must mean is that they are seeing the way things were shortly after the big bang, not during or before.

Answer 3

You ARE confused!! There was never a big bang! There was and still is a God who created everything, and is still in control of his creation. You need to read a Bible. The first book, Genesis, will explain creation to you.

Answer 4

if you think there was a big bang, you are confused.

Answer 5

the general is right