If we can only guess what existed before the big bang, how can we know that it created time, space, and the building blocks for everything? We know that those things exist post-big bang, but not that they were directly caused by the big bang. Or am I missing something?

You're right. We don't know what came before the big bang, or if there even was a before the big bang. We can only make hypotheses and figure out a way to either eliminate bad ones and/or support good ones until we are left with a viable explanation. Unfortunately, we have a lot of good hypotheses with no clear way to distinguish between them.

What was there before the Big Bang?

We simply don't know. We can't even say for certain that there was a 'before' the big bang.

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Big History Project

Course: Big History Project > Unit 2

Lesson 1: The Big Bang | 2.0

ACTIVITY: Threshold Card — Threshold 1 The Big Bang

Google Classroom

Increasing complexity is one of Big History’s main themes. That’s because throughout the Universe’s long history, more and more complex things have appeared in some surprising ways. We call these events “thresholds of increasing complexity.” In this course we identify nine major ones. Download a PDF of the Threshold Overview card.

Each threshold follows a consistent pattern of creating greater complexity in the Universe. Download a PDF of Threshold 1: The Big Bang.

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Wyatt
Posted 8 years ago. Direct link to Wyatt's post “If we can only guess what...”
If we can only guess what existed before the big bang, how can we know that it created time, space, and the building blocks for everything? We know that those things exist post-big bang, but not that they were directly caused by the big bang. Or am I missing something?
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(6 votes)
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- Davin V Jones
  Posted 8 years ago. Direct link to Davin V Jones's post “You're right. We don't kn...”
  You're right. We don't know what came before the big bang, or if there even was a before the big bang. We can only make hypotheses and figure out a way to either eliminate bad ones and/or support good ones until we are left with a viable explanation. Unfortunately, we have a lot of good hypotheses with no clear way to distinguish between them.
  Comment on Davin V Jones's post “You're right. We don't kn...”
  (4 votes)
Ying Chen
Posted 8 years ago. Direct link to Ying Chen's post “What was there before the...”
What was there before the Big Bang?
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(4 votes)
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- Davin V Jones
  Posted 8 years ago. Direct link to Davin V Jones's post “We simply don't know. We ...”
  We simply don't know. We can't even say for certain that there was a 'before' the big bang.
  Comment on Davin V Jones's post “We simply don't know. We ...”
  (3 votes)
gumball 2000
Posted 7 years ago. Direct link to gumball 2000's post “Simply we don't know what...”
Simply we don't know what we don't know. Like all we can do is make our best guesses so, How do we know it created time, space, and the building blocks for everything? Couldn't they have already existed?
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(3 votes)
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- NineJinx
  Posted 10 months ago. Direct link to NineJinx's post “Not really, cause there i...”
  Not really, cause there is no proof they did. There IS proof that the Bing Bang happened, so it is a correct theory. It makes more sense than thinking that everything has always been there, everything has a start, and a reason to be there.
  Comment on NineJinx's post “Not really, cause there i...”
  (1 vote)
Marra Pelletier
Posted a month ago. Direct link to Marra Pelletier's post “why is this so short?”
why is this so short?
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(1 vote)
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