What was there before there was nothing?

[♔Goodguy1066♔]

What was there before the universe formed with the big bang? Nothing? What was before nothing? If nothing existed before the big bang does this suggest an infinity of nothing? How can infinity exist? If the universe is expanding, it cannot be infinite, it must have an end somewhere; what lies beyond the end? More nothing? What is nothingness?

[Jom]

What was there before the universe formed with the big bang? Nothing? What was before nothing? If nothing existed before the big bang does this suggest an infinity of nothing? How can infinity exist? If the universe is expanding, it cannot be infinite, it must have an end somewhere; what lies beyond the end? More nothing? What is nothingness?

One reasonably mainstream theory that could answer a lot of your questions is that the universe is cyclical. That is to say, it expands to its maximum and then begins to contract again, contracting into the singularity that formed the big bang before exploding again. I must say I find it a rather elegant model for explaining how the big bang came about. What started the entire cycle, however, is another question entirely and I find myself somewhat overwhelmed at the enormity of the question.

As for nothingness, I don't think humans can really imagine a state of nothingness as it's impossible for us to experience it.

[Sphere]

Speaking generally, "nothing" doesn't leave any evidence, so its not something science can look into.

[Helm]

There wasn't a before.

[♔Goodguy1066♔]

There wasn't a before.

What do you mean, there wasn't a before?

[Time Commander Bob]

What do you mean, there wasn't a before?

It could be said that if time started at the big bang then it is meaningless to say what happened before it since it was the start of time. Though hypothetically there could be an independent time "bubble" that encloses our universe beyond it which would probably be impossible to know of.

[Helm]

You may as well ask what you would find north of the North Pole, there isn't a north of the North Pole you can only go south from there.

[Helm]

You can't go north of the North Pole but you can go straight up or straight down.

[♔Goodguy1066♔]

You can't go north of the North Pole but you can go straight up or straight down.

I don't understand what that has to do with anything though.

[Helm]

I don't understand what that has to do with anything though.

You can't have a before time when time didn't exist, time was only brought into existence with the universe.

[♔Goodguy1066♔]

You can't have a before time when time didn't exist, time was only brought into existence with the universe.

How can there not be time? That's ridiculous!

[Helm]

How can there not be time? That's ridiculous!

Well you can't apply our concept of time to anything that may or may not exist outside of our universe, time only exists within our universe and it had a beginning, it will likely have an end as well at some point.

[Poach]

How can there not be time? That's ridiculous!

Time is a plane of existence, thus before existence there was no time.

[Ascarona]

How can there not be time? That's ridiculous!

The human mind simply isn't capable to immagine such a thing, maybe in a few generations after we evolved we might be able to think of a new model of time.

[Ex Tenebris Lux]

How can there not be time? That's ridiculous!

there's time as you perceive it, then there's an actual physical property of time

[CarbEast]

How can there not be time? That's ridiculous!

What is time? You can't see it and you can't touch it. In fact you can't even measure it. All we measure is just a number of cycles of a relatively stable periodic process. The only way we know that time actually out there is because we observe motion. But when there's nothing to move there can't be motion. No motion, no time.

[Poach]

There was not nothing before the Big Bang, as it implies emptyness, it implies there was space. There is ofcourse the cyclical universe theory, one other is that, before the Big Bang, there was no existence.

Not nothingness, there isn't an suitable word in English to describe it. Nothingness requires space in which to be nothing, there was no space at all, no fabric of reality.

Being that we cannot measure previous to the point of our Universe coming to be, we will never know for sure.

[bleach]

Being that we cannot measure previous to the point of our Universe coming to be, we will never know for sure.

The only valid answer. Anything else is empty speculation/science fiction.

[Elfdude]

The only valid answer. Anything else is empty speculation/science fiction.

I'm so glad gravity is empty speculations/science fiction.

[Time Commander Bob]

I'm so glad gravity is empty speculations/science fiction.

I don't see how this addresses the point made at all. No matter how much we learn about the universe we live in, there will always be that which is unknowable. The point made is that what was before the big bang (in potentially another time frame or reality) is unknowable to those restricted by it. You may argue against this point by all means, but to use an analogy to gravity is absurd as gravity is within this universe that we experience.