Well, it's a shotgun BBS, so I must be brief so as not to abuse this medium, which I greatly admire and enjoy.
I'd refer you to the writings of Tom VanFlandern, Halton Arp, Geoff Burbridge, Fred Hoyle, and Hilton Ratcliffe. Do read a standard mainstream astronomy textbook also, to get the majority report.
I will leave you with the 'ultimate question' which I first saw proposed by Ratcliffe.
The question is this:
As far as we can tell, all the atoms and molecules in the universe are made of the same basic 'stuff'. The differences are very slight, and consist only of atomic weight and the energy field of the elusive 'electrons' and their well known 'quantum' character. Matter is to a very high percentage simply space.
How do the elements and resulting complex molecules 'know' how to behave? Each atom of Lead behaves exactly like any other for instance. Each molecule of nitroglycerine has exactly the same heat of decomposition. A couple protons either way, and we have vastly different physical and chemical characteristics.
Some of us find terms like 'natural properties' and statements like 'It's God's will' deeply unsatisfying.
This is why I think there is a blueprint to the universe that all matter has access to that we cannot at present detect. Sort of like a DNA code but part of the basic fabric of the cosmos.
I reject out of hand nonsense like 'there is no deep reality' or 'the universe is a hologram'. Likewise math is not reality, it's just a tool to describe reality.
Is the answer knowable? Only time will tell, but superstition and ad hoc or 'invented' physics that cannot be tested will get us nowhere.
