Although the Big Bang theory works out really well on paper it has also taken several hits since it was first introduced in 1927, or 1929 depending on who you ask. But with each new problem that arises for the theory alternative explanations are sought rather than questioning the long-held explanation scientists have used to explain the origin of our universe.
One of the more recent discoveries casting a shadow on the Big Bang is the discovery of Black Holes that are billions of times more massive than our sun. This is a problem because astronomers say the universe is only 14 billion years old which is not enough time for a black hole to have consumed enough matter to grow that large. One black hole was discovered to be 12 billion times more massive than the sun when the universe was supposedly less than a billion years old.
Rather than questioning the Big Bang or our estimate of the age of the universe astronomers came up with another theory: black holes (such as the one mentioned above) are born supermassive. This is equivalent to a woman giving birth to a full-grown man, it simply doesn't make sense and there is no reason to believe that black holes are born as adults other than to keep old theories alive.
This isn't the first time a new theory was quickly cooked up to avoid rethinking the big bang. Once our telescopes became powerful enough to see over extremely long distances we discovered that matter is evenly distributed throughout the universe in every direction. This was a problem for the theory because explosions aren't neat, they don't behave like the blooming of a flower. Explosions are chaotic and had the universe began with the big bang we would expect to see matter distributed at random. Also, if this all began with an explosion the expansion should have slowed down or stopped after 14 billion years, instead it is speeding up.
To save the theory astronomers came up with inflation, a theory that claims that shortly after the Big Bang the universe expanded like a balloon, at speeds faster than those at which light travels. Not only was a new theory created to save an old one, rather than through observation as sound science is normally done, but they broke Einstein's rule that nothing can travel faster than light. Additional explanations were formed to make this new theory get along with Einstein, such as the raisin cake concept, but each is the result of the same confirmation bias the scientific community has accused the religious world of being infected with for so long. In short, the Big Bang Theory and its offspring have been saved more times than Matt Damon's movie characters and in even more unbelievable ways.
To save the theory astronomers came up with inflation, a theory that claims that shortly after the Big Bang the universe expanded like a balloon, at speeds faster than those at which light travels. Not only was a new theory created to save an old one, rather than through observation as sound science is normally done, but they broke Einstein's rule that nothing can travel faster than light. Additional explanations were formed to make this new theory get along with Einstein, such as the raisin cake concept, but each is the result of the same confirmation bias the scientific community has accused the religious world of being infected with for so long. In short, the Big Bang Theory and its offspring have been saved more times than Matt Damon's movie characters and in even more unbelievable ways.
This is the problem with science, as wonderful as it is. When discoveries are made that contradict long-held beliefs, such as the Big Bang Theory, they refuse to consider they may have been wrong. After all, nearly 100 years of astronomy has been built on this idea and if it were to fall much of modern cosmology would need to be rewritten. Instead, we cling to our old theories and refuse to consider new ones. One day we may look back and realize we were forcing mismatched puzzle pieces together causing our view of the cosmos to veer far off course. After all, who knows where we'd be if we still believed in the existence of the planet Vulcan?
