Guess I'm going over 9000. Here's my understanding of the subject and my philosophical take on it.
Big bang theory kind of unofficially says the universe always existed. Just says it was a "singularity" or infinitely dense point. Then the expansion started somehow which created a few chemical elements (through nucleosynthesis); mainly hydrogen and helium. Those earliest elements formed stars which eventually died out and created the other elements through fusion.
This new model says the universe always existed. That's not a huge stretch since big bang theory can't explain where the singularity came from. It also doesn't explain where the quarks and leptons came from to create hydrogen and helium. So, basically something has always existed with either theory.
I want to know how the first atom of hydrogen formed. To me it's as interesting as how life formed. I think there must be some similarity between the way elements are created and the way the first living cells were created.
I can imagine the universe following some type of ebb and flow pattern; expanding then collapsing on itself. Maybe a million big bangs and collapses happened before the one we're studying. What if the universe expands like cells? After it reaches a certain size it will split into two separate universes. This is fascinating and fun to think about but it doesn't serve much of a purpose in my life. I know the only universe I need to understand is in my own mind.
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