Difference Between the Beginning of Time and Before Time

The most extreme example of a Time Abyss is usually born around these two periods. So what's the difference between them? When did they occur?

edited 7th Oct '15 8:39:53 AM by superboy313

They don't occur because this is all theoretical.

Well, "Before Time" was clearly before the "The Beginning of Time". Not that "Before Time" makes much sense as a concept though. I suppose I could imagine an "older" universe with a completely separate time line, but in that case the word "older" wouldn't really mean anything, would it?

"Before time" is usually meant in the sense of "before [someone]'s time" or "before time immemorial". After all, nothing could exist before the beginning of time thus nor before time itself was a concept. So based on that, I'd say at the beginning of time is the eldest. But if you accept an existence of something before the beginning of time aka from before time itself began to run, then that would be older, I suppose.

edited 7th Oct '15 4:42:33 AM by Lemurian

Also, what does it mean when a character's age is "immemorial"?

im·me·mo·ri·al
ˌi(m)məˈmôrēəl/
adjective
adjective: immemorial
originating in the distant past; very old.
"an immemorial custom"
synonyms: ancient, (very) old, age-old, antediluvian, timeless, archaic, venerable, long-standing, timeworn, time-honored, tried and true;

Origin
early 17th century: from medieval Latin immemorialis, from in- ‘not’ + memorialis ‘relating to the memory.’
Translate immemorial to
Use over time for: immemorial

Yeah, most of the time "time" in those sayings is metaphoric for "history and myth". Which makes something happening before the beginning of time not so paradoxical.

Just to throw the cat among the pidgeons, some interpretations of the Big Bang include a brief (amazing brief) period between the initial "bang" and time actually "starting". Due to spacetime needing the universe to expandg/cool enough for it to start behaving like it does now.

Depending on the nature of the story, "before time" could mean the character was around before our universe came into being, i.e before God (or whichever creator entity the story used) came around to creating it. So he hung around with God before "Let there be light!" in the vast nothingness of before.

In a slightly more "down-to-earth" approach, this would mean the creature came into being before our dimension (as in before atoms became atoms) existed and lingered into whatever existed before, which is a quite literally incalculable amount of time (namely because "when was our reality forged?" is a far-out question even for science).

Also, nobody made any "The Land The Beginning of Time" movies.

edited 10th Oct '15 5:15:58 PM by Pyrite

English law actually sets a specific date when Time Immemorial ended.