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Possibility that time started at the Big Bang

Determine whether the cosmological Big Bang marks the beginning of time; specifically, establish whether temporal duration and ordering did not exist prior to the Big Bang such that time "started" at that event.

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Background

The paper opens by framing a central uncertainty about the relation between time and the Big Bang: whether time itself began at that event. The author introduces McTaggart’s distinction between the A-series (future–present–past) and the B-series (earlier–later) to structure the analysis and later proposes a presentist fragmentalist framework to reconcile an ontologically privileged present with special relativity.

While the paper develops tools (such as a definition of a rate of temporal flow and a fragmentalist interpretation) to model temporal behavior near the Big Bang, the foundational question of whether time began at the Big Bang is explicitly acknowledged as unresolved at the outset.

References

On the one hand it's not clear if it is possible that 'time started' at the Big Bang.

A Theory of the Big Bang in McTaggart's Time (2508.15863 - Merriam, 20 Aug 2025) in Section 1. Introduction