Is there a beginning of time?

Well.. will say that value of time is relative to each person, as one will have heard about ask the value of 10 months and a pregnant lady will tell u.. ask about the value of 1 sec, a sport athlete will tell you another..

so whats a beginning? from the big bang or from something that you have defined. instead of asking the past, shouldn't one be treasuring the present?

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There is NO beginning as time is beginningless, it is man's 70 years that makes him look at everything as having a beginning and an end.

The Buddha is clear that it is to man's folly to imagine a beginning or an end of the universe, for a point in time where Ignorance started is simply NOT there. Time is beginningless and the std joke being "what was "god" doing before creation???.... Well he was preparing a place for people like you and me who ask such questions!!!!"

The Buddhist texts basically dispute that the world/universe is Created by some 'being'. Instead, it provides a picture of an EVOLVING universe and beings from a simple to a more complicated form.

The Buddha implied the theory of the Evolution of the Universe, where it is said to shrink and then expand in repeated cycles.

In Digha Nikaya Sutta 14, the Buddha stated that 6 Buddhas appeared over the past 91 world-cycles. On average, a Buddha appears once in over 10 world-cycles.

Our present world cycle from Big Bang to Big Collapse is estimated to last about 30BILLION years before ANOTHER world cycle restarts with a Big Bang again (The Big Bounce hypothesis). Extremely Rare, indeed, is a Sammasambuddha. We are truly blessed to live in the age of the Dhamma!

The pristine Dhamma is still available to us in the 4 Nikayas. What are we waiting for? Let us study the Great Teacher's words carefully while it is still with us, instead of debating over many things!

There is NO ONE point in time that everything began but that everything is cyclical including the universe; it states clearly that the universe begins and ends and then begins again et infinatum. This teaching predated the scientific principles of Big Bounce and Big Bang by 2600 years! But The aim of Buddhism is to develop wisdom and compassion and thereby attain Nibbana. Knowing how the universe began is academic and contributes nothing to this task .

Once a man demanded that the Buddha tell him how the universe began. The Buddha said to him "You are like a man who has been shot with a poison arrow and who, when the doctor comes to remove it, says 'Wait! Before the arrow is removed I want to know the name of the man who shot it, what clan he comes from, which village he was born in. I want to know what type of wood his bow is made from, what feathers are on the end of the arrow, how long the arrows are, etc etc.' That man would die before all these questions could be answered. My job is to help you to remove the arrow of suffering from yourself" (Majjhima Nikáya Sutta No. 63).

The Buddha aimed to help us solve the practical problems of living - it does not encourage speculation. And if a Buddhist wants to know how and when the universe began he would ask a scientist.