MATT: [i]There is no problem conv[inc]ing David or myself of this [/i][the Big Bang theory], [i]but both Tony and dhw have expressed differing degrees of skepticism. (scepticism for our british friend, but then how do we pronounce "scepter?")[/i]-We spell it sceptre. I can now reveal the closely guarded secret that British orthography is the foundation stone of chaos theory. Or should that be khaos? MATT (quoting):" [i]Light from objects so distant has been stretched toward longer wavelengths as it travels across the expanding universe, and astronomers and cosmologists use the degree of stretching, or redshift, as a measure of distance traveled. In the case of SXDF-NB1006-2, the redshift implies that the object existed nearly 13 billion years ago."[/i]-http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2012/06/07/astronomers-identify-very-d...-[i]If the big bang never happened, then why does correcting for the rate of expansion allow us to find results such as this?[/i]-I can add nothing to Tony's excellent answer, except to murmur "The Big Bounce."