Published in General Relativity and Gravtitation, Vol. 32, Issue 6, p. 1125, 2000

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Abstract. It is argued that some of the recent claims for cosmology are grossly overblown. Cosmology rests on a very small database: it suffers from many fundamental difficulties as a science (if it is a science at all) whilst observations of distant phenomena are difficult to make and harder to interpret. It is suggested that cosmological inferences should be tentatively made and sceptically received.

Table of Contents

• INTRODUCTION
• THE OBSERVATIONS WHICH BEAR ON COSMOLOGY
• THE SPECIFIC DIFFICULTIES OF COSMOLOGY
• THEORY AND OBSERVATIONS
• THE COSMOLOGIST'S CREDO
• THE PATHOLOGIES OF COSMOLOGY
• COSMOLOGY IN PERSPECTIVE
• REFERENCES