Actually Julian Barbour won the very first (Templeton funded) FQXI contest

LOL, it definitely explains some of his ideas outside of physics and also some other details. Anyway, this caught me pretty off guard — heck, I checked and even my beloved David Chalmers obviously appeared at FQXi annual conference :D (though, on second thought he is the epitome of what constitutes an intersection between science and religion). Now, I really wonder why was FQXi output plagued by things like intelligent design, or “anti-bigbang” theories that completely deny/omit known facts (e.g. BB theory predicted that CMB should exhibit the qualities of a blackbody —and behold, measurements show that CMB is indeed the most perfect blackbody in the nature that we know of).

As for space, I see it as fundamental … If one were to remove all physical properties from space, it would still have the non-physical qualities of infinity and equilibrium.

I honestly fail to see how infinity of space and its equilibrium are not physical properties. Then again, I would say that all properties are manifestations of concepts, and the manifestations are themselves within that very conceptual framework in which they appear, thus from the first person perspective, which I equate with consciousness, everything is emergent (concepts included). Therefore I find “shape dynamics” interesting — it pretty much deals with the manifestation part in its entirety and it seems to do so within established context which has many parts sufficiently proved via working technology.

Personally I try staying away from the topic altogether. The Big Bang is too deep in the culture.

Me too, but for different reason — I’m not a physicist and mental excursions into various equations/rulers/clocks are neither my forte nor hobby. Thus I still consider BBT the best working theory we have in this regard (though, I admit, it has still some “plot holes”).

Here is what interests me more; https://medium.com/predict/peeling-the-paradigm-1ceab7e774b0

It took me some time to get a clue what you are trying to say in that piece, and if I get it right, I have just one thing to say — consciousness (not to be confused with awareness) is singular and beyond all concepts (such as space and time) and that is an empirically verifiable fact which anyone can prove for themselves. Also, let’s no forget that Yin/Yang is known as Tao. …well, that was two things :D