Out of the Mouth of Babes (republished with revisions)

"In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God." John 1:1

Something physicists wrestle with constantly is "If we agree that it all started with the Big Bang, then what preceded that? What stuff existed to create the Big Bang? And who or what created that? How can we say it 'began' with that unimaginable  explosion if something already existed?"

In a mathematical word problem equation "is" equates to =.  In an equation  the = means that everything on the left side of the equation equals everything on the right side of the equation.  That's why you can use mathematical slight of hand to move the numbers and letters back and forth across the equal sign and it's the same equation; everything still equals on both sides.

For the sake of this argument let's agree that "was" is the same as "is" in a word problem.

John 1:1 presents a fabulous word problem.  The Word=God.  There is no difference between  "the Word" and "God".  With that being said (a pun) all we have to do is define "Word" and "God". We intuitively know that "Word" can't be "God's Word", i.e. the Bible.  The Bible has existed less than 2000 years. The word problem  (another pun) states that "the Word" has been with us from "the beginning".  "The beginning", of course, presents another huge set of problems (third pun), but for this discourse let's just agree that it was longer ago than 2000 years.

So what is "the Word"?  The Greek uses the word "Logos" meaning "indwelling logic" or "the rational  order of things." The Chinese substitute "the Tao" (dow) for Logos. The "Tao" is undefinable. We are told that if you can define it, then it's not "the Tao". The definition, however, includes "the natural order of things".

Now all that's left to do is to define "God".  In the Judeo-Christian Bible alone there are dozens of names for God. Outside of the Bible there are thousands.  Let's choose one.  When Moses asked God "Who should I tell  Pharaoh sent me?"  God answered "YHWH" meaning "I exist" or as some interpret "the source of everything without beginning and without end."

So now our original equation becomes extremely complicated.  "In the beginning was the 'rational order of things'." Or, "The rational order of things" was "the source of everything without beginning and without end."  Then , "the rational order of things" = "no beginning and no end".  Or "the beginning" = "no beginning."  Wrap your head around that. Now scientists and mystics have arrived at the same place. "I consider the ambition of overcoming opposites, including also a synthesis embracing both rational understanding and the mystical experience of unity, to be the mythos, spoken or unspoken, of our present age." Werner Heisenberg, one of the fathers of quantum physics (quoted in The Quantum and the Lotus by Mattieu Ricard and Trinh Xuan Thuan).  Read that several times. In the same sentence the father of quantum physics uses "rational understanding" and "mythos" regarding the way things work.

To restate the equation:
"In the beginning was the Word and the Word was God."
Since, The Word = God
Then,  "The rational order of things" was "the source of everything without beginning and without end."
Or "the rational order of things" = "no beginning and no end"
"the beginning" ="no beginning"

When our son was about seven years old, he became fascinated with the idea of "where did God come from?"  It is a question he pondered, apparently to himself, and to me quite often.  One day while riding in the car he was uncharacteristically quiet.  All of a sudden  he said, "Dad, I think I've figured out where God came from." "Oh? Let's hear it"  "That is a mystery man will never solve."  And I never heard the question again.