At the Big Bang, the three spatial dimensions “suddenly” began their explosive expansion. Was time also undergoing an explosive expansion of its own? Is this explosive expansion merely what we call the passage of time? Or was time not simply passing but changing the pace at which it passed? Scientists speculate that the universe underwent a period of rapid expansion and then slowed; would it mean anything different to say that time proceeded at a very lethargic pace and then sped up? Or it more than just definitional that time is viewed as a constant?

It seems to me that we only recognize spatial expansion because it is counteracted by gravity (keeping large things like galaxies and solar systems from expanding) and the other forces (keeping atoms, molecules and perhaps me from expanding). Is time similarly constrained by local forces?

Would it be correct to say that at the "moment" of the Big Bang a near-infinite mass was compressed into a single point, and, if so, wouldn’t that produce a nearly infinite warping of space? Is expansion the same as the un-warping of space as mass disperses? Or does the rapid dispersion of mass quickly pass the point where space is (at least with regard to its warping by gravity) for all intents and purposes flat, so that from here on the universe's expansion is independent of the lessening of the warping effect? Is this point reached in microseconds after the Big Bang... seconds... minutes... millions of years? Or is the Universe's expansion merely an eternal un-warping? (And could this be true of time as well?)

Finally, do you remember Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse Five," where he suggests that the dimension of time's apparent uniqueness only exists because we are "stuck" in it, like a person tied to the front of a locomotive is stuck moving in one direction through space. Is it a reasonable conjecture that the uncontrollable passage of time is an artifact of our subjective perspective? Further, could the singular direction of entropy be due to our position with respect to the Big Bang, just as the singular direction of gravity is due to our position with respect to the center of the Earth? (Of course, the fact that the Big Bang has no location in space but only in time -- that the universe has no center but does have a beginning -- does mean that time is objectively unique in some ways.)

In short:
1. In the moment of the Big Bang, were time and space almost infinitely warped by the gravitational effect of this concentration of near-infinite mass, and was/is the expansion of the universe partly or completely the process of space (and perhaps time) un-warping and flattening out?
2. The idea that the universe underwent a phase of rapid expansion, which then slowed, seems to imply that spatial expansion is variable but that time proceeds at a constant rate. Is that in fact the case?
3. We only recognize expansion because it is not uniform; gravity and the other forces keep galaxies, atoms and me from expanding along with the universe. Is the expansion/passage of time similarly inhibited by these forces?
4. Time is certainly unique in that the Big Bang has a unique location in time but not in space. However, is it possible that part of time's apparent uniqueness -- the way it passes -- is a product of subjectivity.?

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"Now therefore, behold, the LORD hath put a lying spirit in the mouth of all these thy prophets" (1 Kings 22:23)