# What is the evidence for the big bang.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-evidence-for-the-big-bang/609551>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [January 15, 2012, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-evidence-for-the-big-bang/609551 "2012-01-15T00:31:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 19

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**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\
**Post date:** [January 15, 2012, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-evidence-for-the-big-bang/609551/19 "2012-01-15T02:32:20Z")

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> [@Jon55](#):
>
> I agree that there is hard evidence (redshift) to support the idea that everything is moving away from us however when it was discovered that everything is moving away at a far faster rate than BBT could account for dark energy was just made up out of thin air.

No, it wasn’t. This was discussed in the thread I linked to:

> [@The Big Bang's Trinity?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-big-bangs-trinity/609198/9):
>
> [Here](http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/01/10/astronomers_largest_map_dark_matter/) are some “pictures” of dark matter. You can detect it by its effect on light coming from sources behind it, through gravitational lensing.  
> IIRC, it was hypothesized because the mass of visible galaxies was not large enough to account for the lensing observed.
> 
> Inflation made predictions about the lumpiness of the cosmic background radiation - predictions which were confirmed.  
> Dark energy is required to explain the observed expansion of the universe, but I’m not sure it has been observed as such, unlike the other two. I’m not sure it has made it to theory status yet, but I could be wrong.  
> Now could the OP explain why he thinks these things are “beliefs” aside from not knowing much about cosmology? There are plenty of books and popular articles on this, including a full book on gravitational lensing.

> [@](#):
>
> Yes the CMB is a uniform “glow” that was predicted. The observation does not tell us anything about where the “glow” came from.

It’s a strong indication (although not the only one) that the universe began in a smaller and more uniform state.

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