What Really Happened Before the Big Bang?

[deda]

This question might not be sensible to ask having in mind "The brief history of time" by S. H. since there he claims that what ever was happening before the Big Bang it sure won't affect what is happening afterwards. Yet I wonder what exploded in BB:
-was it a gigant planet, star or similar or
-everything came to existence out of vacuum?

By the way, the bible demands from us to believe that "At first there was nothing and then God started creating things"

 

[Adrian Baker]

Everything seems to have appeared out of nothingness. By nothingness I don't mean an empty space. There was no time, no space, no nothing! Time for us started at BB, so any question about before BB is irrelevant IF it did all start as most theories suggest. There are others, including Hawking, who suggest other possibilities.

The Bible is irrelevant here - it teaches nothing about BB theory, QM or indeed anything about science.

 

[Iron Sun X]

The trick is that it's impossible to tell what was there before the BB because everything in this universe began at that point. It could be nothing, it could be other universes with other definitions of time and space collided, it could have been a tiny firecracker. You just can't tell.

As far as the Bible is concerned, the truth of it is that at the very beginning science can offer no evidence that it is wrong. The universe really could have started with God saying "Let there be Light" and science can't prove otherwise.

 

[Artman]

Originally posted by Iron Sun X

As far as the Bible is concerned, the truth of it is that at the very beginning science can offer no evidence that it is wrong. The universe really could have started with God saying "Let there be Light" and science can't prove otherwise.

It is not necessary (in my opinion) for the Bible to be correct in its account of creation, but the interesting thing to me is that it is not necessarily wrong in its account. Light was probably the first thing to occur, it describes the heavens, the moon and the sun as objects and not deities, the Earth was without form and void, animals came before humans, etc.

Still, as Adrian Baker said, "The Bible is irrelevant here - it teaches nothing about BB theory, QM or indeed anything about science." It was not intended for this purpose.

 

[russ_watters]

Originally posted by Artman
Still, as Adrian Baker said, "The Bible is irrelevant here - it teaches nothing about BB theory, QM or indeed anything about science." It was not intended for this purpose.

True, but it is often invoked for that purpose - the first post in the thread for example seems to imply that the Biblical creation story is relevant to the BB.

Btw deda, the Bible doesn't "demand" anything - whether you believe or not is a CHOICE. Thats the whole point of faith.

 

[Phobos]

Welcome to Physics Forums, deda.

As others already noted, the Big Bang "seed" is still a big unknown. It's one of those ultimate questions that science has yet to answer. Big Bang Theory describes how the universe has unfolded since that beginning, but does not describe the seed nor what came before. As Hawking pointed out, "before the Big Bang" may be complete nonsense just like "north of the north pole" is. As far as we can tell, the Big Bang was the beginning of time and space and all the energy of this universe. That seeming singularity of a seed erupted into a spacetime that is still expanding to this day. It was NOT an explosion of matter/energy into empty space. It was the rapid expansion of spacetime itself (the very fabric of the universe).

It is interesting that both Big Bang theory and the Bible indicate that there was a beginning to the universe (as do many, but not all religions)...independent lines of thinking reaching the same conclusion. But there's certainly more to consider.