The Real Crisis in Cosmology

I was delighted to discover a series of videos today that questions whether there ever was a so-called Big Bang that marked the creation of the observable universe. The videos are presented by Eric J Lerner who in 1991 wrote a book titled The Big Bang Never Happened: A Startling Refutation of the Dominant Theory of the Origin of the Universe. Almost thirty years on, he has not softened his position and in fact he maintains that additional information garnered during that time has eroded the credibility of the Big Bang theory even further. 

The article about him in Wikipedia begins:

Eric J. Lerner (born May 31, 1947) is an American popular science writer, and independent plasma researcher. He wrote the 1991 book The Big Bang Never Happened, which advocates Hannes Alfvén's plasma cosmology instead of the Big Bang theory. He is founder, president, and chief scientist of Lawrenceville Plasma Physics, Inc. In January 2020, Eric Lerner proposed the "Galactic Origin of Light Elements" (GOLE) hypothesis, an alternative model to the Big Bang theory, to help explain the beginnings of the universe.

His series of videos on YouTube are as follows (episode notes are copied from the YouTube channel):

1. Episode 1  In the first episode of the series, Lerner focuses on the new work he presented at the January, 2020 meeting of the American Astronomical Society showing that the Big Bang theory of the origin of light elements has been increasingly refuted by data on the abundance of both lithium and helium.

2. Episode 2  In episode 2 of the Real Crisis in Cosmology, LPPFusion Chief Scientist Eric Lerner shows that the abundance of light elements—helium, deuterium and lithium—can be explained without a Big Bang through the Galactic Origin of Light Elements (GOLE). Helium originates in thermonuclear reactions in stars in forming galaxies, while deuterium and lithium are formed by collisions of cosmic rays with hydrogen, helium, carbon and oxygen nuclei. Theories formulated over 30 years ago have made correct predictions, some of which have been confirmed only in recent years. Lerner shows how these theories, combined with more recent observations that most cosmic rays collide with the stars that accelerated them,  solve a growing mystery of why there are so many more high energy neutrinos than high energy gamma rays. The certainty that large amounts of light elements were produced by galactic processes makes the contradiction between Big Bang predictions and observation even worse. Therefore the universe could never have gone through a period of simultaneous high temperature and high density. In other words, the Big Bang never happened. 

3. Episode 3  In episode 3 of the Real Crisis in Cosmology, LPPFusion Chief Scientist Eric Lerner shows that the largest objects in the universe, vast conglomerations of superclusters of galaxies, are much too large to have formed in the 14 billion years since the hypothesized Big Bang. The universe is too old for a Big Bang!

4. Episode 4  In episode 4 of the Real Crisis in Cosmology, LPPFusion Chief Scientist Eric Lerner explains observations that show that Dark Matter does not exist. The Big Bang hypothesis needs Dark Matter. But we can shed some light on this matter, making it clear it isn’t there.

5. Episode 5  In episode 5, LPPFusion Chief Scientist Eric Lerner explains how cosmic evolution occurred without a Big Bang. Based on theories first developed by Physics Nobel Laureate Hannes Alfven, this evolution can be understood as occurring through electromagnetic and gravitational processes that are well understood here on Earth, without any mysterious dark energy, dark matter or inflation.

Having watched all five episodes now, I'm happy to say that Lerner is completely dismissive of the idea of dark matter, dark energy and inflation. I've never felt comfortable with these contrived notions of how the universe works and now here is a cosmologist who has a plausible alternative to explain things.