I would call this an EXPLOSION. It is a matter of semantics.
It's really not, though. The two models are very, very different from each other.
BTW I have read a few good SECULAR books on cosmology since my graduation from formal education. However I admit it has been over 10 years so I'll need to break them open again. "GRAVITY'S LENSE" is one of them.
Try readong something that's not
a) more than 10 years old. Cosmology has progressed a bit in the bast decade.
b) designed for the average joe. Many popular "science" books are dumbed down for general consumption, much like the simplified documentaries you see on TV.
If this balloon is a perfect sphere and expands evenly then the particles will indeed move out in a straight line. Right?
Wrong. As already noted, the balloon model was an oversimplification I used exclusively to draw a distinction between expansion and explosion. There are many other forces at work in the real universe beyond just the expansion of space. Gravity would be a pretty big one, and it makes sure those particles don't just move in straight lines away from each other.
Because we have RED SHIFT on many of the stars, this would indicate that the universe is still expanding at near light speed.
As has already been mentioned, the speed required for red shift is entirely dependant on your frame of reference. The entirety of space is expanding, which creates a much different model than the "zomg it blew up" version you're using.
This would also indicate that the expansion was even faster at the very beginning.
It does no such thing. Also, as has been mentioned, an evenly expanding space will make it appear that two objects actually accelerate away from each other, not merely moving at a set speed. Again, you're trying to use an "explosion" model becasue that's what the Big Bang is typically described as to the general public. That's the dumbed down version, and is only a weak analogy to the Big Bang so that you don't need a degree in astrophysics to get the basic idea.
Every time a fundy breaks the laws of thermodynamics, Schroedinger probably kills his cat.