Why are we spending so much money on the big bang?

Answer 1

We deserve to know the answer. We have worked hard to learn about the universe we inhabit. We owe it to ourselves, and to our progeny, to understand just how it was everything came to be. And, in our quest for knowledge, we may learn other things about ourselves we can use to improve our lives.

Knowledge simply for the sake of knowledge is a gift. I love knowing our universe is 13.8 billion years old, and that it contains roughly 100 billion galaxies beyond our own. These are things our ancestors could not possibly have dreamed. They viewed the stars as fixed on the dome of heaven, and were puzzled by the wanderers (planets). Comets and supernova upset their view of things. Eclipses were not quite so mysterious--everyone understood fairly well what caused the sun to intermittently darken during the day.

We now know much better just how vast and old our universe is, and that understanding is accompanied by a sense of achievement. As time goes on, we will learn so much more. And this knowledge is our birth right, as human beings, inquisitive about the world around us. We deserve to know.

Answer 2

Opinion: One of the major reasons, if not the chief reason, is in the attempt to prove theories such as godless Evolution, whether in the astronomical sense, or in physics, or in the realm of Biology.

See also:

Is there evidence for Creation?