[lifeformed]

I think the answer is that the concept of "before the Big Bang" doesn't make sense. Time is a part of the universe, and so there is no "missing" time or space before it. I think Steven Hawking said that it's like asking what is north of the north pole.

[beaconstudios]

I think the heart of the issue is that the big bang is confusing to our understanding of causality. What caused the matter to exist in the original singularity? Before it was a singularity, was it some other form or had it always existed as such? What triggered the big bang?

Based on the first law of thermodynamics we can figure that a constant quantity of energy (in the form of both energy and mass) has always existed, but then the question remains - why does it exist?

[d0lph]

How could time not exist?