Xref: utzoo sci.space:16251 sci.astro:5967
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From: tim@hoptoad.uucp (Tim Maroney)
Newsgroups: sci.space,sci.astro
Subject: Re: Big Bang:  Did it happen?
Message-ID: <9364@hoptoad.uucp>
Date: 20 Dec 89 09:26:55 GMT
References: <963@YaleVM.YCC.Yale.Edu> <263@cfa.HARVARD.EDU>
Reply-To: tim@hoptoad.UUCP (Tim Maroney)
Organization: Eclectic Software, San Francisco
Lines: 19

In article <263@cfa.HARVARD.EDU> wyatt@cfa.HARVARD.EDU (Bill Wyatt) writes:
>The inflation theory predicts Omega is exactly 1.0000... , but
>every piece of observational evidence says Omega is between 0.1 and
>0.3, so the Universe is open. There are lots of truly creative  ways of
>reconciling the discrepancies; shadow matter, tailored particles,
>etc., etc. None of them has any observational basis; their sole
>reason for being is to close the Universe.

I've often wondered about this.  So many scientists seem to take the
dark matter for granted, but I've yet to see any clear reason for
postulating it other than a sort of religious dogma that the universe
will eventually recollapse.  Is there really any stronger basis for
believing that we only see ten percent of the universe, or are people
letting their aesthetics guide their modeling?
-- 
Tim Maroney, Mac Software Consultant, sun!hoptoad!tim, tim@toad.com

"I've been called an evil genius by cities of assholes...  but I know who
 these people are!  And they're on my list!" -- Robert Crumb