CMB observed by Penzias and his pal around 1970. CMB does not equal red shift. And LeMaitre was a creationist with an idea outside the mainstream of scientific thought. I can only imagine the barbs that would have been hurled his way by todays science community. Yikes.
Mid 60's actually. Yes, I was wrong about that.
And LeMaitre was a creationist with an idea outside the mainstream of scientific thought.
In what respect was Lemaitre a creationist? He estimated the age of the universe as lying between 10 billion and 20 billion years; modern estimates fall within that range. Many Christians also subscribe to the big bang, and that their deity caused it, but they're not usually called creationists. I have no idea what his ideas on biology were.
Lemaitre's work was a direct consequence of the expanding solution to the GR field equations proposed by Friedmann in 1922. Einstein didn't like it initially, in that it offended his world view, but accepted it in reasonably short order, and said eventually he found it beautiful. Einstein rejected lots of mainstream ideas; his philosophical intuitions were not very reliable. Lemaitre was invited to major scientific conferences and major laboratories to present it, and it made him famous; Einstein himself nominated Lemaitre for the highest Belgian scientific honor, and it earned him admission to the Pontifical Acdemy, all within seven short years of its first proposal.
I'm amused by the constant need to claim marginalization.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georges_Lemaître