James,

I think there are a few, very basic and logical problems with our current cosmological models. For one thing, Inflation, Dark Matter and Dark Energy are enormous patches, between prediction and observation. It used to be called "falsification," but apparently it doesn't apply to cosmology.

There is one earlier patch that doesn't get the attention it deserves;

When it was first realized redshift increases proportional to distance in all directions, it either meant cosmic redshift was an optical effect, or that we are at the exact center of the universe. Since the light didn't seem otherwise disturbed, the optical effect, as "tired light," was dismissed. So it was proposed that space itself expands, premised on Einstein's postulation of "spacetime," as physical basis for the math of General Relativity.

What seems to have been totally ignored is the central premise of GR is the speed of light is a constant in all frames. As the frame accelerates, both clock and ruler dilate equally.

So if space were to expand relativistically, wouldn't the speed of light have to increase proportionally, in order to remain constant? Yet that would negate it explaining redshift.

Two metrics are being derived from the same light. One based on the speed and one based on the spectrum. If the speed were the numerator, it would be a "tired light" theory, but since it's an "expanding space" theory, the speed is still explicitly being treated as the denominator. The ruler against which this expansion is measured and thus the foundational metric.

Think of all the times we have been told that eventually space will expand so far and fast, those distant galaxies will become invisible, because the light can no longer cross the space. What is the speed of light measuring, if not space?

It's like the theory works, if 1+1=5, so lets just make 1+1=5 an axiom and not worry about it.

If you doubt me, try taking this issue up with any cosmologist of your choosing and while they will automatically dismiss it, they will not refute it. Better to discuss multiverses.

One way waves, light, sound, do shift over distance, is as multi-spectrum "packets," as the higher frequencies dissipate faster. Yet that would mean we are sampling a wave front, not observing individual photons having traveled billions of lightyears and that would really throw a monkey wrench into quantum convention.