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1: Inflationary cosmology povides an explantion for what might have caused the big bang.
I am only passingly familiar with any of the "Big Bang" theories. I am curious as to what you mean by "caused". Do you picture this singularity sitting somewhere (whatever that means) for an unknown amount of time (if that would even exist) and then one day it just decided to expand? So would "the cause" be what changed in the neighborhood of the singularity to trigger the expansion?