Hello everyone!

I am making notes from an old soviet book from 1960. It struck me, that they refer to the Big Bang theory as “Neo-Thomism,” “fideism,” and bourgeois idealism.

This is the text from the book itself:

“…Catholicism and science were created for one another.” They seek to exploit every difficulty and unresolved question in science to serve the interests of church dogma. Proponents of Catholic philosophy often cite the theory of the “expanding universe” as a favorite argument for the creation of the world. In 1919, scientists discovered the so-called “redshift,” a phenomenon in which spectral lines from radiation reaching us from distant star systems and galaxies shift toward the red end of the spectrum. Science has not yet conclusively determined the cause of this phenomenon. The most likely explanation is the rapid recession of galaxies from our solar system in various directions; idealist philosophers immediately concluded from this that all the matter and energy in the universe was once concentrated in a single “primeval atom” created by God. This conclusion lacks any scientific basis, if only because we have no right to extrapolate findings observed at a specific time and within a limited region of the universe to the entire infinite universe or to timeframes spanning billions of years. Nevertheless, Pius XII… Citing this and other similar “theories,” Pope Pius XII declared in a speech delivered on November 22, 1951, titled “The Proof of God’s Existence in Light of Modern Science”: "Creation took place in time; therefore, there is a Creator; therefore, there is God—these are the words we demand of science; these are the words our generation expects from it.

I tried asking Qwen what the soviet alternative used to be and what is currently being taught in China, but I am not satisfied, nor done with the matter.

Can someone give me an explanation on what the Big Bang has as an alternative or if there is an alternative at all and how I should look at this excerpt and at the approach it has against the Big Bang theory.

I am simply looking to have a better understanding over the matter, not looking to cause trouble.

You can imagine and you may agree, that access to astrophisics in english is limited. Brian Cox, Stephen Hawking, Neil deGrasse Tyson, etc. are the scientist most people see nowadays. Not exactly principled Marxist-Leninists. I try to analyze them to the best of my abilities, but I am kinda struck now, looking for help!

Thank you in advance!