OK, do tell what was "
before the beginning of this Universe".
If you profess to have the answer, I most likely will call that nonsense. But please, feel free..........
I think you know the outcome of any argument with river...take it from someone that is experienced. He will continue denying, in the face of any evidence available, much as some of our religious fanatics do.
Personally though, I'm not completely happy with the way you do word things. Science and cosmology can reasonably explain and observe [with particle accelerators and the like] how the universe/space/time evolved from 10-45 seconds, that is .0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001 from the BB instant, for river's benefit. Al we can say before that is that space and time [spacetime]
as we know them, evolved from a hot dense state. The highlighted bit is important. Time and space, as we know them, started at the BB. Asking before that makes no sense really, although we can speculate based on current knowledge.
I like the universe from nothing as per Lawrence Krauss, and despite what river and the religious nuts say, it makes perfect sense, as long as one is prepared to redefine "nothing" In that regard, the quantum foam is obviously far far closer then anything else [including the magic spaghetti monster] we can come up with.
But hey, instead of getting involved with river who will never make sense due to his anti mainstream streak, we have plenty of threads in the cosmology section, some I have started as tutorials...not that they are perfect, but certainly, generally correct.