One fine day, a child asked their mother: “Mom, before God created the universe, where was He? Was there anything there?” The question sounded both innocent and… headache-inducing, because it’s the very same question top scientists are still struggling to answer: “Before the universe existed, what was there?”
And if you think this question is easy, sorry to disappoint—it’s one of the hardest in human history.
Before “something” was… nothing?
According to the most widely accepted theory today, the universe began with a massive expansion called the Big Bang—the event that gave birth to time, space, matter, and everything we know.
But here’s the twist: time itself began at that moment. Meaning… there was no such thing as “before” the Big Bang, because “before” is a concept tied to time. If time didn’t exist yet, then “before” is meaningless.
Imagine you’re reading a book and ask, “What’s before the first page?” The answer is: nothing. The book simply starts at page one. If you want to know what happened before that… you’d have to write another book.
Scientists Refuse to Accept Such a Simple “The End”
Some scientists aren’t satisfied with this abrupt conclusion. They propose new models: perhaps the Big Bang wasn’t the absolute beginning but just an “event” within a larger, pre-existing universe.
For example, the “cyclic universe” model suggests the universe expands, contracts, and expands again—like an endless breath. Another model compares our universe to a bubble in boiling water: countless other bubbles (universes) form and pop, with the Big Bang being just one of them.
There’s even a hypothesis that our universe was born inside… a black hole from another universe! It sounds like science fiction, but it’s being seriously studied.
We May Never Know
The problem is: if time and space began with the Big Bang, then anything “before” (if it exists) lies beyond our ability to observe or measure. In other words, it’s a “no-go zone” for current science.
But as the child asked: “Just because we can’t see it, does that mean it’s not real?” Who knows—maybe one day, when science advances enough, we’ll uncover what’s “behind the curtain” of the universe, revealing answers to even the most seemingly naive questions.
Before everything existed, what was there? Maybe nothing. Maybe something beyond our imagination. Or maybe an entirely different story—like a prequel yet to be written.