How Did the Universe Begin?
We don't whether the universe ever "began" at all. There are 3 possibilities.
- The universe started from nothing. This is the least likeliest possibility. If the universe did "start", this would not have been directly related to the big bang. Cosmic Inflation came before the big bang, and we don't know when that previous phase started nor what came before it.
- The universe has always existed. This is the simplest and most likely answer.
- Our universe was created by beings or a being from another universe in a multiverse. This is possible but is an unsatisfying answer because it doesn't explain any mysteries. All this does is kick the question down the road to how the multiverse was created. And the answer to that would have to be one of the first two possibilities. This is an unneccessary complexity to answering the question.