Cept the Big Bang wasn't...
Looking back in time by looking out into the universe is only partially
correct (yes those photons may have traveled 12 billion light years to
get here, that does not make them the beginning of the universe, it
only makes them as far as we can see at this point in our technology
....
There is a force pushing mega amounts of matter (clusters of galaxies)
apart in spite of the local gravitational well that by BBT has to be
pulling them back together - a force that was absolutely NOT predicted
by the BBT nor can be accomodated by it without adding some constants
here, removing some there, changing the value of this and tweaking that
- and those frantic tweaks again and again are not as a result of
calm, cool, theoretical considerations, but because the *^&$#)@!
universe is not cooperating!...
As a scientific explanation the BBT resembles The House that Topsy
Built, only more rickety...
And then there is the little complication that there is NOW energy
contained in every cubic inch of empty space, and E = MC^2, and -oops-
the total weight of the universe has changed 'again', the Hubble
constant rolls off into the weeds 'again' ...
"Bring me the big erasor, we've got some constants to modify 'again',
Earl."

denny / k8do