I know this is controversial stuff but i was having an argument with my friend over this subject and came up with the following conundrum:
I am assuming that time started at the Big Bang, as is widely accepted (i think), and so when the universe expands to its fullest and starts to collapse due to gravity (i think), will it not collapse into an infinitesemally small space and start the big bang all over again?
If so then time could not have started at the Big Bang, because there could have been a big bang before it.
Or will the theory that time will run backwards when the universe collapses cancel this out?
(There is probably a very simple answer to this that i have missed which will make me look like a fool.)
(Oh well.)