I heard Fred Hoyle when he came to lecture at my school in the 80s (a prestigious, rich boys school). It was one of the few places willing to give him the time as his views were vaguely in line with Christian creationism though he was an atheist, ironically. It was doubly ironic in that the school was Catholic and Catholic Christianity is not biblically literalist. In fact the inventor of the Big Bang theory eventually became a Catholic priest. hahaha!

Which is rather ironic, considering how long he continued to oppose the big-bang theory even after its successful prediction of background radiation (and the explanation of isotope ratios is as good as a prediction, given that the processes are no longer happening.) I'm wondering if he made that statement specifically to avoid these issues?