A Timeless, Boundless, Equilibrium Universe

Abstract

For more than half a century the theory that the universe is expanding has dominated cosmology. All current cosmological theories, from the various Big Bang models to the various Steady State models, explicitly assume an expanding universe. The evidence in favour of an expanding universe is purely circumstantial, and is based on a “sheer assumption”, (Hubble 1936a) that red-shifts in the light received by an observer on Earth from distant objects are caused by relative motion and hence may be interpreted as Doppler shifts. Hubble (1936b) continues: “…the ever expanding model … seems rather dubious”, and “On the other hand, if the recession factor is dropped, if red-shifts are not primarily velocity-shifts, the picture is simple and plausible. There is no evidence of expansion and no restriction of time-scale, no trace of spatial curvature and no limitations of spatial dimensions.” (Hubble 1936c). These statements are as true today as they were in 1936.