Big Bang Theory or can we drop 'theory' now?

[Moonliner]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

Two answer your two questions:

2) You've hit upon another common viable theory, that the universe does through periodic expansion and contraction. Some observations seem to suggest that perhaps the current rate of expansion is slowing, signaling that the next contraction is coming "soon" (i.e., several billion years).

No, what I am saying is that there are "big bangs" going off all the time all over the place. What we currently see and think of as "The universe" is but one grain of sand to the true universe.

Also, just for the record, current observations show that the rate of expansion is not slowing. It is in fact Accelerating.