Comment by Galen on December 28, 2009 at 6:53pm

The simple answer is that the question is an absurdity on the face of it. Both space and time began with the Big Bang. There was no such thing as "before" the Big Bang because time didn't exist. There was no "before" nor "after" nor any other measurement or perception of time. What happened before the big bang? Nothing, because there was no "before" the Big Bang.

Comment by GodlessBoy on December 28, 2009 at 9:23pm

I don't how deep the question of the student was but let's suppose that it was a deep question, terrible way of formulation, I agreed with you in that. In the microscopic world, time-reversal is accepted. Like retarted potential and advanced potential both are solutions in ED and there is an explanation (WFA theory) that shows why we do not see advanced potential and stuff. In QM, there is the Stueckelberg interpretation of time, which is a little bizarre but it works. So my point is the answer of the scientist was more in that way than in the simple way of 'Your question is wrong or make no sense', I think.

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