Atheist: What happened before the "big bang"?

Don't know. I do know that it is preposterous to arbitrarily assume that a God was responsible when A, there is no scriptural basis for that assumption and B, until recently many Christians claimed that the big bang never happened. It wasn't until recently that the preponderance of evidence forced many to conclude that it really did happen. But there are still some die hards out there who claim it never did.