If we're going to be delving into the whole "The Big Bang Theory is Wrong" rabbit hole then there is a shit ton of stuff to talk about here. Personally, I have long doubted the theory - if only for the (as my avatar famously said) saying: "Just give me one free miracle, and I'll explain everything else." Why and how everything suddenly came from nothing is one of the Achilles heels of modern cosmology. But people also forget the origins of the Big Bang theory, and what came before. Before it the most universally accepted theory was some form of steady state Universe - one that always had been and always would be, though (IIRC) it was debated if it was also infinite in size as well or not.
As mentioned above, it was early doppler effect interpretations of Red Shift that drew people to the (then) logical conclusion that if galaxies were moving away from each other, then, logically speaking, there should have been a time when they were closer, and closer, and so on until you get to the pinprick of the "beginning of history". It was a Catholic monk who was one of the first proponents of such a "Big Bang" theory, precisely as it would bring science and religion closer together. Scientists could call it The Big Bang, theists could call it "In the beginning was the word, and the word was god..."
So you had a very strong correlation of forces in early 20th century cosmology all desiring to have a cosmic "start point", and from there, the notion snowballed, but as is the case, the more we got to know about the Universe, the more we had to - not so much "fill in the blanks" in the equations - but to create a whole subset of stuff to try and balance out the equation. In any rational thinking process, when you need to have 80-90% of all matter and energy be some elusive "dark" substance that cannot be detected or measured in order for your equations to work - then maybe it's the equations themselves that are wrong?
You also need to snub and disregard evidence that points to other conclusions, such as the work done on plasmas by Hannes Alfvén, and the work done on high-redshift quasars and their connections to low-redshift galaxies done by Halton Arp, both of which are shunned by modern cosmology since their findings do not fit the current theories.
It reminds me of the old Earth-centric model of the solar system. As orbital mathematics progressed during the late middle ages, and more and more precise models were made of how the heavens worked, astronomers had to make the planets go through more and more "loops" in their orbits around the Earth to make the math work out - until the evidence for a solar-centric model blew away the need for all these loops and gave the solar system a relatively simple model to follow.
It's almost 20 years old now, but the Cosmology Quest documentary is an excellent starting point for those who wish to learn about the problems facing modern astronomy. If anyone has any more up-to-date documentaries or videos, feel free to post them.
