[Alter Kaker]

My question: how do you get matter to move across the universe so quickly? Unless, as you point out, the em waves emanating from the big-bang were slowed because they traveled through dense matter. However, that means that matter would have be present for the em wave to travel through to be slowed down. Isn't this the classic chicken-egg situation? The problem: even if matter is traveling at a fraction of C, that is still a lot of energy. However, what would happen to space-time if all matter in the universe were concentrated in one spot? Seems like space-time would be severely "warped."

That's not one question, that's about 19 different questions. You're not thinking of the Big Bang correctly. It wasn't all the matter contained in a tiny area, it was the entire universe. Matter didn't exist until some time after the Big Bang. Of course "space time" was warped, because at the moment of the Big Bang it didn't exist. Quarks didn't appear until 10^-35 seconds after the Big Bang, protons and neutrons until 10^-12 seconds, the simplest atoms for 300,000 years.

[dhs12345]

Sorry, know very little about the theories about the origins of the universe. Just trying to understand.

Comments...

Still, matter, albeit small, had to be moved across large distances at fairly fast speeds. Small particles are affected by special relativity just as much as large particles. Assuming that the laws of Physics as we know applied.

And 300,000 years is very small when compared to the distances and durations of the Universe.