Its not ironic at all. The fact that an expanding universe requires a beginning is a big problem for Materialism..... saws it right off at the knees.
A First Cause is antithetical to Materialism, which is a growing ideology today.
“God, I believe, does not live in a Time-series at all. His life is not dribbled out moment by moment like ours: with Him it is still 1920 and already 1960…God is outside and above the Time-line. In that case, what we call ‘tomorrow’ is visible to Him in just the same way as what we call ‘today.’ All the days are ‘Now’ for Him. He does not remember you doing things yesterday; He simply sees you doing them…He does not ‘foresee’ you doing things tomorrow; He simply sees you doing them: because, though tomorrow is not yet there for you, it is for Him.” — C. S. Lewis