---
title: "Nobel-Winning Scientist: I Have No Idea if the Big Bang Happened"
description: "Nobel-winning cosmologist James Peebles argues that we need a better way to describe how the beginning of the universe happened than the \"Big Bang.\""
date: "2019-11-14"
modified: "2019-11-14"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/nobel-scientist-big-bang-never-happened"
categories:
  - "Astrophysics"
  - "Big Bang"
  - "Science & Energy"
  - "Space"
tags:
  - "big bang"
  - "Cosmology"
  - "the digest"
---

# Nobel-Winning Scientist: I Have No Idea if the Big Bang Happened

![Nobel-winning cosmologist James Peebles argues that we need a better way to describe how the beginning of the universe happened than the "Big Bang."](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/famous-cosmologist-big-bang-never-happened.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Image via Pixabay/Victor Tangermann\</em\>*

## Revisiting History

Nobel-winning cosmologist James Peebles has a bone to pick with the scientific community: he wants the world to stop referring to the [earliest moments of our universe](<https://futurism.com/new-research-shows-the-universe-may-have-once-been-a-hologram>) as the "Big Bang."

His main beef, [according to *Agence France-Presse*](<https://www.afp.com/en/news/826/top-cosmologists-lonely-battle-against-big-bang-theory-doc-1m915e1>), is that there's no good way to test whether such a thing actually happened — cosmologists have evidence of a rapid outward expansion, but not anything as discrete as a singular point that detonated to create everything in the universe.

"It's very unfortunate that one thinks of the beginning whereas in fact, we have no good theory of such a thing as the beginning," he told *AFP*.

## Interesting Idea

Peebles doesn't have an alternative to the Big Bang theory to propose, but that's his exact point: without sufficient data, scientists shouldn't assume a convenient hypothesis is correct.

"We don't have a strong test of what happened earlier in time," Peebles told *AFP*. "We have theories, but not tested."

## Martyrdom

But Peebles isn't quite ready to die on this hill — he concedes that in the absence of a better way to describe the [beginning of the universe](<https://futurism.com/astronomers-found-ancient-remains-big-bang-fossil-cloud>), "Big Bang" does just fine.

"I have given up," he told *AFP*, "I use Big Bang, I dislike it."

"But for years, some of us have tried to persuade the community to find a better term without success," he said. "So 'Big Bang' it is. It's unfortunate, but everyone knows that name. So I give up."

**READ MORE:** [Top cosmologist's lonely battle against 'Big Bang' theory](<https://www.afp.com/en/news/826/top-cosmologists-lonely-battle-against-big-bang-theory-doc-1m915e1>) \[*Agence France-Presse*\]

**More on the Big Bang:** *[Future Civilizations Won’t Be Able to Understand How the Universe Started and Evolved](<https://futurism.com/future-civilizations-wont-be-able-to-understand-how-the-universe-started-and-evolved>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)