The largest question that comes to my mind, and really seems to sink the entire theory, is that if pure energy actually had a gravitational component, wouldn't the Big Bang simply have gone "thud," as the gravitation component would have been strong enough to hold in everything, including light (energy)?

But perhaps there's no gravitational component to light. If so, and if there was a massive, universal black hole of matter and it collided with a massive, universal black hold of anti-matter, then when that matter was converted to energy, providing there was at least some assymetry, then the subsequent energy could have produced a massive ball of incredible energy no longer bound by the gravitation pull produced by the matter, and BANG!

The universe begun.

Is there an astrophysicist in the house that could lend some hard science to my meandering thoughts in a way which is contructive and not confusing?

If so, please do!

By the way, this is an offshoot of this thread.