What do atheists believe existed before the Big Bang?

My atheism has nothing inherently to do with my answer. What my answer does reflect is the lack of an answer provided by the magic or miracles of religions.

My first response to the question “before the Big Bang?” is what does one mean by “before”? There was no before. Everything that we relate to as “time” began at the Big Bang. The “fourth dimension” of time may certainly be independent of our understanding of it (and likely is), but time as the means by which we detect changes of reality, i.e. the cause and effect phenomena, started with the Big Bang. So, in a manner that applies to everything other than theoretical math/physics, there is no “before” the Big Bang, and thus the question is nonsensical.

That said, I think the actual question asked is What caused the Big Bang? My two meaningful positions on that question are as follows. First, while much of the math works, there are substantial problems with standard Big Bang theory. Inflation in particular not only makes no rational sense but also has no mathematically coherent reason either for beginning a tiny fraction of a second after the Bang or for ceasing a tiny fraction of a second thereafter. It may be nothing more than a mathematical anomaly that happens to answer some equations that are as yet unsolvable without it. Second, the basic idea is not exclusively conclusive of an “infinitely dense unit of stuff” as is commonly held, e.g. George LeMaitre’s “cosmic egg” concept. It could very well have been an “infinitely squished” previous universe, and a property of that squishing could be a reset of the “cause and effect phenomena” such that the proceeding universe was rendered incapable of determining cause and effect before that event. There is also a mathematically-viable theory that the collapse of a four-dimensional star into a four-dimensional black hole would result in a three-dimensional event horizon that functions much like how event horizons function in our 3D black holes. In our case, right on the horizon (which functions as a 2D plane), matter spontaneously pops into existence in the form of matter and anti-matter, and what particles do not immediately collide and cancel out with their anti-partner fly away in Hawking radiation (proposed by the late Stephen Hawking). In a 4D event horizon, that “4D Hawking radiation” - the portions that do not cancel out with their 4D anti-partners - could be the very expansion of our universe that we observe today. The effective 3D plane of the 4D event horizon IS our universe. This hypothesis also explains hologram hypothesis and why that math works as well.

Most importantly though is why does one care about an answer? We cannot answer it, and for me, that is simply the end of the discussion and the end of the care for an answer. It is a wonderful intellectual curiosity, and answering it could provide insights and technological advancements beyond our imaginations, so it is worth pursuing, but beyond that the lack of an answer does not affect me nor anyone I know personally. The need to know - I would label it as “the anxiety to have any answer” - is something rather unique to religion. This is where many atheists regard religion and theology as a weakness of the heart. Many people are drawn to religion, because it provides “answers”, answers that almost never supported by evidence and often come along with harmful dogma. Giving up that anxiety and concerning oneself with just the issues that directly relate to living is a freedom of heart and mind that many atheists speak of and cite as a major benefit of having walked away from religious thinking.

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