Pastor Claims He Can Debunk the Big Bang Theory, but People Aren't Buying It

Scientists widely accept that the universe was created by "the Big Bang" or "the Big Bang theory." In basic terms, the theory says that before the universe existed, the matter that later came to be stars and planets was compressed into a small, extremely hot, extremely dense point. About 13.8 billion years ago, that point rapidly expanded and cooled, forming the planets and stars that we now know, per NASA and the Institute of Physics.

However, the founder of the 2819 church, Philip Anthony Mitchell, claims he has proven otherwise. He went viral in June 2026 for his theory that he says disproves the Big Bang. Here's what we know.

In the viral video, Pastor Philip walks in circles around a small table on stage as he explains his thought process. He says, "I'm about to destroy the Big Bang theory right now. The Big Bang theory says that from a little swirling dot, something exploded, and then created the solar system ... But space has no gravity."

There's already an issue here with the concept of gravity, but for clarity's sake, we'll continue with the pastor's explanation.

Pastor Philip continued, "So if the dot is swirling, and something exploded, that means everything else in the solar system should be spinning in the same direction. Because if kids fly off a merry-go-round, they're all going to be flying off in the same direction. But there are planets that spin in opposite directions."

Tiktoker @natemccallister stitched Pastor Philip's video with some counter points. First off, he says that space does have gravity; it just gets weaker as one moves away from mass.

He also pointed out that most of the planets in the solar system do rotate in the same direction, with the exception of Venus and Uranus.

Nate presents his own analogy as a counterpoint to Pastor Philip's theory about planets spinning in opposite directions. Nate says, "Imagine you're driving on a road ... and you see a car on the side of the road that's been in a crash, and it's facing the opposite way of traffic." He goes on to suggest, "That's kind of how Venus and Uranus are. There was a collision at some point, or something going on in their atmospheres."

BBC Sky at Night Magazine says that scientists believe that Venus and Uranus spin "backwards" because they were hit by large celestial bodies (similar in size to themselves) early in their creation. BBC notes that scientists know the Earth was hit by a large asteroid, so it's plausible that Venus and Uranus could also have been hit by celestial objects early in their creation.

Scientists have another theory about Venus as well. They believe that it might have originally spun in the same direction as most of the other planets, but eventually slowed to a complete stop and then began spinning in the other direction. They theorize this could be because of the Sun's strong gravitational pull on Venus's dense atmosphere, per Science Alert. This could explain why Venus's rotation is so slow. One "day" on Venus lasts 243 days on Earth.