"...big bangers use unsubstantiated fudge factors to solve their deficiency of explanation."

Pete...YOU would have to show where this happens. The scientists who simply try to follow where the laws of physics lead have been finding for several decades now that the "big bang" fits the measurements and is... so far... a coherent model for **what has actually happened**. That means all discoverable science seems to point to that 14 billion year-old event.

Now... what WENT *bang* and how that got there is a matter of real debate. Why SHOULD there have been a 'singularity' to go *bang*? Maybe... *shrug* .. a 'god' put it there and said "Let there be light!"... maybe not. It's not exactly something we are likely to get to soon. It may even be theoretically impossible to 'see' back to and before the Beginning.

However... IF one chooses to believe that a 'beginning' must itself have a cause, and that 'God' is the only possible 1st cause, one must still confront the same question that 'big bangers' confront: Why should there have been anything, even a God? How did a 'God' get there... (where ever 'there' is). Simply stating "God is eternal" is a human mindset... not a proof of anything. It is one choice amidst several theories. Then, arguing that God "said so" thru the bible is just a circular argument. The Christian bible was written and edited and translated and interpreted by MEN, no matter what you choose to believe about 'inspiration'.

We fallible humans can only measure what we can measure and try to make it all internally consistent with reason... adjusting as we go. Religious 'answers' are just one way of saying "we don't need all those measurements... we have this book."