[NJ_gent]

"since all these conclusions are based only upon observations of the status quo"

We're observing The Big Bang as we speak? Wow. We're observing the vibrations and the strings of String Theory? Wow. We have a black hole in a lab that we can test with an observe? Wow.

I tell ya, the things you learn on Free Republic...

[Fester Chugabrew]

We're observing The Big Bang as we speak?

Not at all. We are observing phenomena that give rise to the theory that there was such thing as a "Big Bang." It is certainly a plausible theory, but like theories of evolution, no more "provable" than the existence of God, and thus no more worthy of consideration in the marketplace of ideas.

[ThinkPlease]

We're observing The Big Bang as we speak? Wow.

No, we're observing the effects of the big bang, most directly through the expansion of the universe, and the detection of the CMB, and deducing through Occam's Razor a likely theoretical result. It's not our fault that there isn't any data that's come out against it. :-)