Agora---

You couldn't be more wrong when you say that Steady-staters don't have to contend with the CMB. In fact, the attempt to show it was integrated starlight was a good one and a popularly held belief of those such as Hoyle. However, now with COBE and MAP we know that that model cannot be true. Dismissing the CMB as made-up data just shows how strangely out-of-touch you are with reality.

Atko-- The singularity is an artifact of the first approximation of the model. There are plenty of fully compatible Big Bang models that do not have the singularity incluing the ecpytotic model (sorry on the spelling, I have only heard lectures on that one and haven't read the papers on it since cosmology isn't my main area), the cyclic model with the DeSitter bounce, and the time-travel universe. None of these have pesky singularities, but they still show up as Big Bangs!