The other questions:
* Was there anything before the big bang?
* Could ancient life have emerged in the big bang’s glow?
* What are dark matter and dark energy?
* What is the universe’s ultimate fate?
* Will the big bang become an untestable theory?
Simply answer to the first question is YES.... God was before all
My two cents on a couple of these:
“Was there anything before the big bang?”—A poorly phrased question, since time is postulated to be a consequence of the big bang. There is no “before”. Better to ask what grander or more fundamental thing is the universe, including the big bang, a part of or derivative from.
“Will the big bang become an untestable theory?”
Not sure how you prove the past, so it in a sense is already an untestable theory. You could test a theory that’s consistent with discovered physical evidence of a big bang, though.
“Was there anything before the big bang?”
Well, the laws conservation of matter and energy would suggest there must have been.
Nachmonides, in his 13th century commentaries on Genesis states that a fair reading of Genesis relates that there are ten dimensions. We exist in three, maybe four of those dimensions (space, time, the one from which Life erupts into the physical universe, and the one where spirit originates).