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Astronomy and the Bible

Mike Riddle

Institute for Creation Research
www.icr.org

Two Models of Origins

• Evolution

• Big bang
• Universe is 12 – 15 billion years old
• Stellar formation (natural processes)
• Biblical model
• God spoke the universe into existence
• Young universe
• God created the stars

• Implications of the big bang

• God’s creation was not 6-days
• The meaning of “very good” in Genesis 1:31
• Death before sin
• The Genesis Flood was not worldwide
• Colossians 1:16 “all” does not mean all things
• What do the heavens declare: God or evolution?

Evaluating Evidence for Age

• Textbooks and science journals
• Are we being given all the evidence?
• Examining all the data
• Evidence against one position is support for the other position

• Recession of the moon

• The earth pulls on the moon
• The moon pulls back on the earth
• The moon is spiraling away from the earth (4cm/year)
• 1.4 billion years ago the moon is in contact with the Earth

• Comets

• Long period comets should not exist
• Problems with the Oort cloud
• It has never been observed
• There is NO evidence that it exists
• Not enough mass in the hypothetical Oort cloud
• Definition of faith (An unquestioning belief that does not require proof or evidence)

• The age of the sun

• Energy by thermonuclear fusion
• The sun should grow brighter with age
• If the sun is 4.6 byo, it should have brightened by about 40%
• The sun and life (59^o – 32^o = 27^o F  or  -3 C)

• Supernova remnants (SNRs)

• Crab nebula: light from the supernova reached the earth in 1054
• Supernova remnants and predictions

• Galaxy formation

• Spiral galaxies
• Formation of galaxies
• Why is this any more scientific than: In the beginning God created

Origin of Stars (Are we being told all the evidence or just selected information to support a particular idea?)

• Evolution: stars evolved billions of years before the earth
• The Bible: The earth created first then the stars
• The origin of stars according to progressive creationism
• The Bible and the origin of stars

• Genesis 1:16
• Isaiah 40:26
• Psalm 8:3
• Exodus 20:11, Psalm 19:1, Psalm 33:6, Psalm 148:5, Isaiah 45:12, Nehemiah 9:6
• John 1:3, Revelation  4:11
• It is by the Word of the Lord that the universe and stars were created

• Star formation and physics

• The popular theory: stars form from vast clouds of gas and dust through gravitational contraction
• Star formation: Don DeYoung, Ph.D., Physics; Fred Whipple, The Mystery of Comets; Danny Faulkner, Ph.D., Astronomy; Hannes Alfven, Nobel prize winner; Astronomers Charles Lada, Frank Shu
• Star formation and time: 1 trillion stars per year; 2.7 billion stars per day; 31,700 stars per second
• Textbooks: are they correct?
• Conclusion on star formation

Scientific Evidence and the Big Bang

• Evidences used to support the big bang

• Redshift
• Cosmic background radiation
• Element abundances
• Education system and the media

• Scientific evidences that contradict the big bang

• Redshift
• Cosmic background radiation
• Galaxy formation
• Spiral galaxies
• SNR

• Distribution of galaxies
• First and Second Laws of Thermodynamics
• Medium and heavy elements
• Star formation
• The big bang
• 15 – 20 billion years ago
• An expansion of space and time
• No center
• It represents a true miracle

• Redshift of starlight

• Describes an expansion of the universe
• Redshift interpretation
• Redshift values do not match what the big bang model predicts
• Redshifts come in concentric circles 1-million light years apart

• The Copernican Principle

• We are in no special place
• The big bang is dependent on the Copernican principle
• Implications of quantized redshifts
• Summary of evidences
• Evidence appears to support the big bang only when contradictions are ignored
• The big bang model is constantly changing to match the data
• The big bang model cannot explain much of the observed data

The Bible and Big Bang Cosmology

• Danny Faulkner, Ph.D. Astronomy; John Byl, Ph.D. Astronomy; Werner Gitt, Ph.D. Physics
• Scientists who believe in a young universe
• The pattern of evolution

• Not reporting all the evidence
• Constantly updating the big bang model to match observed data
• Disagreement among astronomers
• A disregard for Biblical interpretation
• An appeal to churches to accept “real science” (you can have evolution and religion)
• Critical thinking
• Which is easier to believe
• Nothing created something
• In the beginning God created
• The Bible teaches why so many choose to believe in “nothing created something”
• 2 Timothy 4:3-4
• Questions from scientists: Was there anything before the Big Bang? Is there a role for life in the cosmos? Why is there something rather than nothing? Will we ever know?
• Answers from the Bible (John 3:16)

"It Does Make a Difference What You Believe"