Does the Big Bang continue to be controversial in more modern times?
A. Yes. Surprisingly, it’s still controversial and still mostly because of its extra scientific implications. For example, here is an image of an editorial which appeared in the journal Nature in the year 1989 with the surprising title Down with the Big Bang. And if you advance to the next slide, we can see it more easily. The subtitle of the article, where it is written, quote, Apart from being philosophically unacceptable, the Big Bang is an over-simple view of how the universe began. So let me point out that this was written by a man named John Maddox. John Maddox was the editor of Nature, the most prestegious science journal in the world. For 20 years, he was the editor, and he wrote an editorial entitled Down with the Big Bang, at least partly because he viewed the idea of the Big Bang as philosophically unacceptable.
