[medved]

...although I do not claim astropyhsics competency

In this case, you don't need it; logic and common sense will suffice. Having all the mass in the universe collapsed to a point would be the mother of all black holes; how in hell's anything supposed to "big bang" its way out of that??

Other than that, the notions of an expanding universe and a "big bang" have been shown to be based on nothing more than a misinterpretation of redshift data, as the Dragonscience site and Halton Arp's own site will note.

[Moby Grape]

The hardest question is what was before matter. If one accpets creationism, then big bang lends to this idea. All of mass in one place, exploding out and reforming by gravity into the universe. On the other hand, if one accepts creationism, they could also accept that any supreme being capable of forming matter, could just as easily speak it into existence in any form or date sequence that supreme being should choose. Whether steady state or big bang, or whatever, the "what was before matter" is the tough one. Einstein said that time only exists where there is matter and gravity...if so, then one could better conceive the idea of a supreme being in a state of "always was/ always is"....say, I am getting dizzy!!!! One thing I am sure of...I don't know exactly how the universe came to be.