What existed before the creation of time?
What existed before the creation of time? Imagine that state – nothing existed at all, before the creation of time.
But that’s incorrect. There was nothing such as “before” before(or whatever else) the creation of time. The creation of time refers to the standard Big Bang model of cosmology, according to which time began together with the universe in a singularity approximately 13.7 billion years ago.
So, there is only one possible answer to it. And it’s an easy one – either time has existed forever, or time does not exist at all.
But here comes a little twist: it doesn’t matter whether time exists or not, it’s just a question of how many milliseconds have passed from the creation of time.
If you know the answer to this question, then you can easily prove that time does not exist – because the duration of only 0.000 000 000 001 milliseconds is meaningless in any case.
So, we need to make an assumption: there has always been at least one millisecond (1 unit of time) in the past and there will always be at least one millisecond(1 unit of time) in the future. At least one small fraction of time will always exist in both directions till eternity.
How can it be that time never began and will never end?
It’s understandable that you can not imagine how something can have no beginning and ending point. But the state of nothingness that existed before the creation of time is just as unimaginable.
So, for now, let’s keep it this way – It has existed forever, and it will forever exist.
The one unit of time was not the non-existence of time and space. It’s not that nothing existed before time, but that everything was to exist.
There is a car parked inside your house and you are currently in your room. It’s not that the car does not exist – it’s yet to exist.
So, the point before the creation of time was the point when everything was yet to exist. But still, nothing was ever created. And you may be thinking, “hey wait a minute! Maybe the car was to exist and didn’t get created! So, it’s non-existent!”. But that’s wrong again. Again, it’s not a state of nonexistence, but the state from where everything was yet to exist.
This logically proves that everything will exist forever – if something nonexistent is nonexistent, then that means it doesn’t exist at all! But if everything was yet to exist then there is only one possible outcome – it will exist.
The moment the creation of time began, time started ticking like a clock – this is what you imagine. The time we know was created by human beings. The actual meaning of “time” might be much different.
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Did consciousness begin with time?
Consciousness is a really complex topic to discuss. In the simplest of words, it is the second most complex thing to describe after time.
Now, if consciousness began with time and time began with consciousness, it could be that consciousness will always exist in time and time will always exist in consciousness. But then again, where does time begin for consciousness?
It is impossible to say. We can only assume that there was a point before the creation of time when it started, but we cannot put a limit on it.
Perhaps, the most reasonable assumption is that there was no beginning and no end to consciousness and time – and it will always be like this.
The idea of “no beginning” might not satisfy your desire to know why everything exists and why nothing began… But as far as we know today, looking back into human history, science hasn’t given any right answer to “why everything exists”, but has only convinced us more about how immense it truly is.
Time as a living being? Don’t laugh – it’s actually possible to imagine time as a living being.
The most probable explanation for this is that since it’s eternal, it must have consciousness of some sort to make decisions about the past and future.
What if time did not exist at all?
But in order for something to be nonexistent, it must not exist at all! If something exists even a tiny bit, then it exists at least to a certain level and is therefore not nonexistent.
While a clock does not necessarily mean time, the same applies to the fact that we have day and night. There are days and nights just due to the fact that the Earth revolves around the sun. It has nothing to do with “time”.
If you are looking for a more structured answer then consider this:
What would happen if time stopped suddenly? If you say that time stopped only for us, then that means there are other parts of the Universe where time is still in motion.
So, in short, it can not stop everyone simultaneously. |And if time is not frozen…then time isn’t still at all.| So, if time stops everything will start to move backward.
Even if this happened for a single moment…everything will start moving in reverse and continue moving back till it reaches a point before the creation of time – which is the point when everything was yet to exist.
The whole question of “what existed before the creation of time” comes with our most common misconceptions about time:
1. The misconception about time being a tool for us to measure the passing of events
This is the misconception that most people tend to make. We define time according to our day and night cycle, and then we assign a time to everything that exists. But…
Imagine this. If there was no day and night cycle on Earth, then you would have no need for long-lasting lights or clocks so that you may know the passing of time. You would instead rely on nature itself – You’d feel it in your body when something happens and you’ll be able to tell whether it’s summer, winter or fall without ever having even heard of any other life living on Earth besides yours.
2. The misunderstanding that the past exists
It’s true that we can see images and video clips from the past. And it stops right there. There is nothing such as the past that actually exists. Instead of the past, what exists is memory. There is no such thing as “past”, as we say it.
It’s not necessary that there was ever a thing called the past.
3. The misconception that there is a fixed moment when “something” was created
In each and every un-timely event, you will always find that there is one moment of existence where everything was yet to exist. And this moment will also not exist for long before it’s gone forever – it’ll disappear right away. If time did not exist, then this point will not be there either – it’d just have gone forever. There is nothing such as “when” something has been created!
If the entire world would have stopped existing at once at the exact same second, then we could say: “this is the moment when everything was created”.
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4. The misconception that time is a moving entity
Many people tend to say things like: “I stared at the clock for 30 minutes.” But what does it mean? It means that you were staring at a movement of numbers on the clock for 30 minutes. But is the clock a moving entity within those 30 minutes? Yes. Was time moving? No, it just stood still.
Time does not exist on its own – The only thing that exists is Relative time
Relative time is the only part of the time you can define in a concrete manner. Relative time is the only thing we can say “yes, this is 100 years ago”, and “yes, this is yesterday”.
Yes, it’s true that time does not exist in itself. If you are doing something boring it takes forever and vice versa if you are doing something fun.
Read:
- Is the Universe just an illusionary art?
- “Nuclear pasta”: Is this the strongest material in the Universe?
- How space-time will never end
That’s how time is. That’s the only way time can exist.
So, what existed before the creation of time? Read the question again. There was just no “before”. There was a state when everything was yet to be created. It was not “nothingness”. Everything was yet to exist. Time was yet to exist, time was relative to the fact that it was yet to exist.
The post is over. Here are a few techniques for looking back in time:
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