The natural science of cosmology
arXiv:1203.6334 · doi:10.1088/1742-6596/484/1/012001
Abstract
The network of cosmological tests is tight enough now to show that the relativistic Big Bang cosmology is a good approximation to what happened as the universe expanded and cooled through light element production and evolved to the present. I explain why I reach this conclusion, comment on the varieties of philosophies informing searches for a still better cosmology, and offer an example for further study, the curious tendency of some classes of galaxies to behave as island universes.
Keynote lecture at the seventh International Conference on Gravitation and Cosmology, Goa India, December 2011