Supernatural Solutions

Of course, these two tricky questions can be avoided if a supernatural power pressed a "start" button on time, and controls whatever is "beyond" our Universe.  In Ancient times thinkers across cultures believed the Universe was controlled at least in part by supernatural forces. 

Even by the 17th century, when Galleo’s telescopic observations of Jupiter had effectively disproven the Ancients’ Earth-centered Solar System, and Isaac Newton had shown how gravity controlled the motions of the planets as they orbit the Sun, supernatural explanations were still popular.  Even Newton was in large part searching for ways to understand God.

You can learn more about this history in  The Path to Newton, an interactive infographic describing the history of ideas leading to Newton’s theory of gravity.

See also: Hubble's Law