"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth." - Gen 1:1
Space/time does not pre-exist, it is created as the universe expands.
All of the steady state theories were debunked [by this discovery] and physical cosmologists turned instead to multi-verse, multi-world, cyclic, ekpyrotic, imaginary time models - all of which result in an infinite regress falsely demanding prior universes comply with the physical laws and constants of this one.
The only closed physical cosmology known to me is Max Tegmark's Level IV parallel universe which posits that 4D is a manifestation of mathematical structures which actually do exist outside of space and time.
And on this thread, TXnMA brought up isotropy v anisotropy - that "without anisotropy we could not exist; without isotropy we cannot survive."
In the first 300,000 years after the Big Bang from our present space/time coordinates, the universe was an isotropic hot watery soup.
If you read the article TXnMA presented at 66 and we discussed at 68 and 83 - and the additional article I posted at 68 - or listened to the sounds I linked at 68, you might have noticed that the Cosmic Microwave Background records the sound waves at the exact moment (300,000 years after the Big Bang from our space/time coordinates) at which photons decoupled from electrons and neutrons, atoms formed and light went its way.
And God said "Let there be light."
If you don't see this as evidence, we can't make you. But it practically screams to TXnMA and to me - and perhaps others on this thread.
By the way, light is used throughout Scripture as a metaphor for God's Shekinah glory. The metaphor is perfect because photons travel a "null path" - for the photon, no time elapses at all. [The photon is timeless. God is not bound by time either nor by space.] Space/time are part of the creation, not a restriction on or property of the Creator of them.
I found your entire post to be interesting. But here is one thing I want to comment upon:
“for the photon, no time elapses at all”
I’d never heard that before. Like relativity and quantum mechanics, it opens up new ways of thinking about things.
Loosely speaking perhaps, it is one of those every day miracles that is always available for inspection, contemplation, or perhaps even experimentation.