As a an interested layman reading and following as many of the links given as I've had time for: how about all of the evidence Mr. Mozina?
Well, while there is "evidence" of "acceleration", there's no evidence "dark energy" had anything at all to do with that observation of acceleration. While there is "evidence" of a relatively homogeneous layout of matter, again, there is absolutely no physical evidence that "inflation" had anything to do with that observation. There's no physical connection between "observation" and the "cause" because being assigned to that observation by the mainstream. There is evidence we can't account for all the mass in a galaxy. Again, there is no physical evidence that any of that missing mass is contained in exotic material.
It just seems to me that the way to understand something is to start with the most recent, complete results and then work backwards to find where something fails. But not having the mathematical talents to understand the mechanics intimately all I might do is root for what seems most logical to me from the sidelines.
This debate isn't ultimately about "mathematics" or mathematical talents. Its about "physics" and their physical inability to link "acceleration" with "dark energy" that blows their claim. It's the physical inability to get "inflation" to exist in nature that makes me "lack belief in inflation". It's their physical inability to produce any "dark matter" that is at issue here. They'd love you to believe this is about math, but it's about physics, specifically their inability to physically and empirically demonstrate their claims. You don't need math skills to ask for a physical demonstration that a car running on electricity actually "accelerates". Seen anything run on "dark energy"?
Why do you treasure a few papers written decades ago, before half of what is known of modern physics was understood?
Because the mainstream *STILL* can't explain things like solar wind, something that Birkeland "predicted" over 100 years ago!
If I wanted to argue Alan Guth's theory of inflation, I could not do so until I could understand the equations he used, found a mistake, and then proved it to him.
There weren't any mistakes in his "equations". His mistake was assigning math formulas to invisible, dead stuff. It's like trying to find a mathematical mistake in an equation describing the number of invisible elves that fit on the head of a pin. The math isn't the problem or the issue.
If one can't do the math to even look for a mistake, how can their interpretation be argued at all?
That isn't the case, nor is it even relevant since my beef isn't with the "math" in the first place.
One cannot truly understand the mechanics. At best, one has only incomplete analogies to work from. Analogies by nature cannot be completely correct.
I've had a number of years of calculus so I can follow along in terms of the math. It's not however a mathematical problem in the first place, it's a *PHYSICAL PROBLEM* because they can't physically demonstrate their claim. Their only recourse is now to attempt to convince you that if you (or I) only knew more math we would "get it" and we would not need to see an real experimental evidence of their claim. What they never want you to see is that their problem isn't in the math. The problem is that they "made up" a fudge factor for their mathematical models. In fact they created a model that is 96% metaphysical fudge factor, and only 4% actual physics.
It's just like my analogy about how many invisible elves fit on the head of pin. *IF* you accept the existence of invisible elves *and* you accept the properties I assign to them (their size for instance), *THEN* the math is fine. *IF* however you insist I demonstrate the existence of invisible elves and the properties I have assigned to my mythical entity, my whole show fall apart. In this case, their math is fine. They just cant produce the physics to demonstrate that dark energy exists, or that it causes acceleration in the patterns they claim. Other than that small flaw, it's about as good of any theory as the number of invisible elves fit on the had of a pin, and the math is just about as useful.