Not really sure what you are trying to say here.
Who lives north of the north pole?
The fact of the matter is, that it might not be a sensible question. Given what we know today about space-time, it actually isn't a sensible question and it is rather analogous to asking about what you'll find north of the north pole.
I'm not going to pretend that my puny human mind can comprehend how it's not a sensible question. Or what it means for time to "not exist". I can't for the life of me fathom such atemporal conditions.
But the fact remains.... "before" is a temporal concept. A concept that necessarily doesn't make sense in atemporal context.
All data we currently have, suggests it is.
Time is an inherent part of the space-time fabric, which is the universe.
If you say so. Fact remains that it's a nonsesical notion.
You would have to assume a larger, secondary or external, space-time which brings forward our space-time for this notion to make sense.
We human beings have brains that didn't evolve to comprehend atemporal conditions. Us beings who live in the scope of classical physics where we only have to deal with medium masses traveling at medium speeds within a space-time continuum, have evolved to avoid being eaten by lions, not to comprehend quantum mechanics - to borrow from something Laurence Krauss likes to say.
This stuff simply doesn't "feel right" to us. These are conditions that are completely alien to us. Even our language is entirely geared towards living in a space-time at that classical level of physics. This is why even physicists will talk about "before the universe" - eventhough they don't necessarily mean an actual temporal "before". It's just that even our language isn't capable of talking about such conditions without using temporal terms. That's how deeply engrained this stuff is in our minds.
I like the example that Brian Green once made in some even concerning this kind of stuff. It was about the counter intuitiveness of quantum physics, but it's the same principle me thinks...
He was talking about how he would love that quantum physics came as natural to us as classical physics... And he gave the example of throwing a small bottle of water at someone from a couple of meters away.
The person to which it is being thrown can very naturally figure out in a split second where his hand needs to be to catch said bottle. Truelly in a split second. In the blink of an eye, that person can intuitively figure out where the bottle is going to end up based on the speed at wich it travels, an estimation of the weight of the bottle and figure out the trajectory it will follow.
If you would want to calculate it with math, it will take you far far longer then a split second to figure it out. In fact, most people won't even be able to do that math and wouldn't have a clue on how to calculate the exact trajectory the bottle will take. Yet, our brains intuitively figure it out in the blink of an eye.
Imagine if you could do the same with quantum particles. Ever seen the quantum physics math to try and figure out where a certain particle is at any given time? Imagine if you could figure that out as intuitively as you can with that thrown bottle.....
The fact is that we don't live on the level of the quantum world. Our brains didn't evolve to comprehend that world.
The same goes for the flow of time. This is also why it took an Einstein to figure out relativity. Because as far as our brain is concerned, the intuitive flow of time is that it is a constant and the same everywhere for everyone at all times.
All this together... it seems quite safe to conclude that however the universe originated, and whatever processes make that happen... it is bound to be something incredibly weird, strange and counter-intuitive.
