I am neither an astrophysicist nor cosmologist but I have no difficulty with accepting the prevailing wisdom of the experts in the field who are constantly repeating studies, analyzing new data, and revising the theory as needed to fit new discoveries. This is of course the essential difference between science and faith. One never changes and is based on a small fixed set of data (the words in a book) although there may be variations on the emphasis of one sentence in one faith versus de-emphasis of those same words in another, or slight variations in the effect of multiple translations over several centuries, faith is fairly immutable. Science is not immutable which those who need absolute certainty may find uncomfortable.
I do not need to know what existed before the big bang to accept the big bang. The bb is a theory that attempts to understand what happened when this universe began its existence as a rapidly expanding phenomena. It does not really, if I grasp the bb correctly, attempt to describe what is before the bb began but rather what happens in the micro fractions of seconds as the universe began. Two thought experiments I suggest. For those of you with faith who attack the idea of the bb because of the "who" created the singularity from which the bb emerged. People of faith have no difficulty accepting that their God has been forever and don't seem to ask what created God. I have no difficulty accepting that time may be meaningless in a singularity and that the physics to gain a better understanding of a singularity or multiple singularities of various types are not yet known which does not mean unknowable. So for those who say what existed before the singularity, I ask what existed before God? Second thought experiment.. I hope everyone understands the concept of infinity. There is no infinity plus one in standard math (put aside hyperreals) no meaning to X divided by zero but we understand it to be something we can approach but never quite reach. There does not need to be some number beyond infinity any more than there needs to be some "thing" before a singularity. I may have it all wrong and welcome corrections.
But to re-emphasize the original question. The BB only deals with what happens after the beginning in the time beginning in the one divided by infinity seconds of the universe.
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