"The Big Bang Theory" was first theorized by a priest of what religious ideology?

The story behind the answer

The correct answer is Catholic. Belgian physicist and Catholic priest Georges Lemaître proposed in 1927 the “primeval atom” idea—the foundation of the Big Bang theory. He showed that Einstein’s equations allow an expanding universe, a view later supported by Hubble’s observation of galaxy redshifts and, decisively, by the 1965 discovery of the cosmic microwave background. Ironically, the term “Big Bang” was coined by skeptic Fred Hoyle during a radio broadcast.

Memory tip: The “Father” of the Big Bang was literally a Father—Fr. Lemaître, a Catholic priest—who championed separating science from theology while pioneering one of modern cosmology’s central ideas.