From Walt Thornhill's paper "Toward a Real Cosmology in the 21st Century" The Open Astronomy Journal, 2011, 4, (Suppl 2-M5) 191-210
While advancing technology provides a deluge of new
information and surprises about the cosmos, our understand-
ing of the universe has stalled for at least a century. More
thoughtful scientists are beginning to express frustration
about the lack of breakthroughs in fundamental physics
while the technology around them seems to advance at a
faster pace every day. It can be argued that the problems
stem from modern education, which no longer fosters
"desire and pursuit of the whole" but rather a narrow prescribed ex-
pertise devoid of historical context. The selection of earlier
‘giants’ whose shoulders we must stand on is predetermined
and unquestioned. But standing on someone else’s shoulders
does not make us taller. The debates and politics that sur-
rounded the consensus that raised those ‘giants’ to their ex-
alted status are lost in the myth-making. We must worship
the sainted geniuses our forefathers chose for us. Question-
ing the ‘laws,’ the contradictions and misleading language of
science is discouraged. Yet educators are surprised by the
growing disinterest in science. Perhaps it is because Big
Bang cosmology has nothing to offer about life and the hu-
man condition. Instead, our cosmology is a bizarre narrative
of miracles, chance, isolation and the hopelessness of even-
tual total darkness or a return to a cauldron of rebirth. This
claim may seem harsh but the clamour of dissent is rising.
Sir Fred Hoyle, who coined the dismissive name “Big Bang”
maintained a healthy skepticism throughout his career:
Big-bang cosmology is a form of religious fundamental-
ism, as is the furor over black holes, and this is why these
peculiar states of mind have flourished so strongly over the
past quarter century. It is in the nature of fundamentalism
that it should contain a powerful streak of irrationality and
that it should not relate, in a verifiable, practical way, to the
everyday world. It is also necessary for a fundamentalist
belief that it should permit the emergence of gurus, whose
pronouncements can be widely reported and pondered on
endlessly—endlessly for the reason that they contain nothing
of substance, so that it would take an eternity of time to distil
even one drop of sense from them. Big-bang cosmology refers
to an epoch that cannot be reached by any form of
astronomy, and, in more than two decades, it has not produced
a single successful prediction” [8]
Thanks to Einstein’s promoters, Big Bang cosmology has
become an exercise in geometric metaphysics and computerized
‘virtual reality,’ with its practitioners vying for attention
with the most bizarre confabulations. It began by wedding
the distinctly different concepts of time and space into a
‘fourth dimension.’
“Henceforth space by itself, and time by
itself, are doomed to fade away into mere shadows, and only
a kind of union of the two will preserve an independent real-
ity” [9].
There is an unconscious irony in the use of the word
‘reality’ in such a context. If time is a dimension, point me in
the direction of time! Meaningless statements such as
“Gravitational waves are ripples in the fabric of space and
time and are an important consequence of Einstein's general
theory of relativity,”[10] epitomize the imaginary nature of
theoretical physics. What material object is ‘the fabric of
space-time’ and how does matter cause it to ‘ripple?’ Those
who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. We
have returned full circle to the Pythagoreans with their inner
circle of ‘mathematikoi.’ The Big Bang hypothesis is no bet-
ter than the two thousand year old Ptolemaic model of the
cosmos, with the Earth at the center of everything and ad hoc
epicyles added as necessary to preserve a geometric model.
[8] Hoyle F. Home is Where the Wind Blows. Calif: Univ Sci Books
1994; p. 413.
[9] Minkowski H. Space and Time. In: Lorentz H, Ed. The Principle of
Relativity: a Collection of Original Memoirs on the Special and
General Theory of Relativity. New York: Dover Publications Inc
1952; p. 75.
[10] Svitil K. LIGO Observations Probe the Dynamics of the Crab Pul-
sar. Caltech News Release 2008; 2: Available from:
http://media.caltech.edu/press_releases/13154.
While advancing technology provides a deluge of new
information and surprises about the cosmos, our understand-
ing of the universe has stalled for at least a century. More
thoughtful scientists are beginning to express frustration
about the lack of breakthroughs in fundamental physics
while the technology around them seems to advance at a
faster pace every day. It can be argued that the problems
stem from modern education, which no longer fosters
"desire and pursuit of the whole" but rather a narrow prescribed ex-
pertise devoid of historical context. The selection of earlier
‘giants’ whose shoulders we must stand on is predetermined
and unquestioned. But standing on someone else’s shoulders
does not make us taller. The debates and politics that sur-
rounded the consensus that raised those ‘giants’ to their ex-
alted status are lost in the myth-making. We must worship
the sainted geniuses our forefathers chose for us. Question-
ing the ‘laws,’ the contradictions and misleading language of
science is discouraged. Yet educators are surprised by the
growing disinterest in science. Perhaps it is because Big
Bang cosmology has nothing to offer about life and the hu-
man condition. Instead, our cosmology is a bizarre narrative
of miracles, chance, isolation and the hopelessness of even-
tual total darkness or a return to a cauldron of rebirth. This
claim may seem harsh but the clamour of dissent is rising.
Sir Fred Hoyle, who coined the dismissive name “Big Bang”
maintained a healthy skepticism throughout his career:
Big-bang cosmology is a form of religious fundamental-
ism, as is the furor over black holes, and this is why these
peculiar states of mind have flourished so strongly over the
past quarter century. It is in the nature of fundamentalism
that it should contain a powerful streak of irrationality and
that it should not relate, in a verifiable, practical way, to the
everyday world. It is also necessary for a fundamentalist
belief that it should permit the emergence of gurus, whose
pronouncements can be widely reported and pondered on
endlessly—endlessly for the reason that they contain nothing
of substance, so that it would take an eternity of time to distil
even one drop of sense from them. Big-bang cosmology refers
to an epoch that cannot be reached by any form of
astronomy, and, in more than two decades, it has not produced
a single successful prediction” [8]
Thanks to Einstein’s promoters, Big Bang cosmology has
become an exercise in geometric metaphysics and computerized
‘virtual reality,’ with its practitioners vying for attention
with the most bizarre confabulations. It began by wedding
the distinctly different concepts of time and space into a
‘fourth dimension.’
“Henceforth space by itself, and time by
itself, are doomed to fade away into mere shadows, and only
a kind of union of the two will preserve an independent real-
ity” [9].
There is an unconscious irony in the use of the word
‘reality’ in such a context. If time is a dimension, point me in
the direction of time! Meaningless statements such as
“Gravitational waves are ripples in the fabric of space and
time and are an important consequence of Einstein's general
theory of relativity,”[10] epitomize the imaginary nature of
theoretical physics. What material object is ‘the fabric of
space-time’ and how does matter cause it to ‘ripple?’ Those
who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. We
have returned full circle to the Pythagoreans with their inner
circle of ‘mathematikoi.’ The Big Bang hypothesis is no bet-
ter than the two thousand year old Ptolemaic model of the
cosmos, with the Earth at the center of everything and ad hoc
epicyles added as necessary to preserve a geometric model.
[8] Hoyle F. Home is Where the Wind Blows. Calif: Univ Sci Books
1994; p. 413.
[9] Minkowski H. Space and Time. In: Lorentz H, Ed. The Principle of
Relativity: a Collection of Original Memoirs on the Special and
General Theory of Relativity. New York: Dover Publications Inc
1952; p. 75.
[10] Svitil K. LIGO Observations Probe the Dynamics of the Crab Pul-
sar. Caltech News Release 2008; 2: Available from:
http://media.caltech.edu/press_releases/13154.