That is an epic logic fail. Other galaxies are 12 billion light years from us because the universe has been expanding in the intervening years.
Sorry, but you're the one whose logic is wonky, Darron. When we look at distant galaxies, we are
looking into the distant past. What happened in the "intervening years" is
completely irrelevant. For all we know, those distant galaxies are probably 20 billion light years away from us
now; but we have no way of knowing that. All we can know about them is how and where they were, billions of years ago.
Or are you saying that the Universe expanded in such a way that it seems, to us, to have been billions of light years across shortly after the "Big Bang", just to be confusing? That seems about on a par with the idea that God created the world just a few thousand years ago, complete with rocks with potassium/argon ratios that would make them seem much older just to test our faith.
In more than forty years of study - everything from Wikipedia to advanced level University textbooks to talking with graduate students and professors - I have to say I've
never seen a really convincing explanation of the "Big Bang". Ask what happened before the Bang, or what the early Universe expanded "into", and all you get is some kind of theological whiffle about "Oh, space and time began with the Big Bang, so such questions aren't really relevant," which doesn't really explain anything.
I suspect that even they aren't sure, so they're dodging the question. And since there were no observers around when the Big Bang "happened", all we really have are inferences, in the Humean sense.
And, Darron, you are welcome to dismiss me as a "crackpot" if you feel it's necessary, but that's just juvenile name-calling. It adds nothing of relevance to the discussion.
TFS