Creationist cosmologies
Encyclopedia
Creationist cosmologies encompass a variety of theories of Young Earth creationists
(YECs) that are designed to support the religious belief that the universe
is only a few thousand years old, in line with a literal reading of Genesis. Creationist cosmologies are often concerned with solving the "starlight problem"; that light from galaxies at distances of billions of light-years takes billions of years to reach Earth, in contradiction to a proposed universe age of thousands of years. As the technical sophistication of YECs has increased over the years, new attempts to explain away the scientific evidence
for the age of the universe
of 13.7 billion years has also been incorporated. YECs now re-interpret phenomena such as galactic redshift
s and the cosmic microwave background (CMB) to fit into their beliefs, though there is no single creationist model which attempts to uphold the cosmic microwave background as interpreted by the Standard Model. They believe, along with advocates of intelligent design
, that the universe is "finely tuned
" for life.
Creationist cosmologies are criticized for being pseudoscientific
, and rejected by the scientific community
. The scientific consensus
today is the Big Bang
model, which was proposed in the 1920s and subsequently corroborated by Edwin Hubble
's discovery of the Hubble Law in 1929, and later by the discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation by Arno Allan Penzias
and Robert Woodrow Wilson
in 1964. These observations falsified
non-standard cosmologies
. Other observational and theoretical inconsistencies were resolved by inflationary cosmology first described by Alan Guth
in 1980 and it is now incorporated in the best-supported concordance model
of cosmology
.
, in the 1857 book Omphalos
by Philip Gosse
. The book sought to reconcile the long geological ages advocated by the leading geologist
of the time Charles Lyell
, with a recent creation. Gosse claimed that universe has an appearance of age, but is actually very young. (Omphalos is Greek for navel/belly button. The theory suggests Adam and Eve did have navels, despite never having been born of human parents.) It was revived by creationists in the 20th century. Critics have parodied it as "Last Thursdayism", as in "the world might as well have been created last Thursday", with the physical world and even people's memories of earlier events being merely planted by God.
The Omphalos hypothesis, as applied to cosmology, attempts to answer the "starlight problem" by positing that light which appears to source from distant galaxies was actually created by God en-route, conveniently avoiding long light travel times.
. Setterfield's proposal was that the speed of light (
), was infinite in the past, but has slowed substantially over time. Setterfield argues that this resolves the so-called "starlight problem", since light may have traveled fast enough in the past to reach Earth in thousands of years, despite being billions of light years
away.
Setterfield selected a number of historical measurements of
starting with the original measurement by Ole Rømer in 1667, and proceeding through a series of more recent experiments, culminating in measurements taken in the 1960s. These showed a decreasing speed over time, which Setterfield claimed was in fact an exponential decay series that implied an infinite speed in the not distant past. He later expanded his claim to cover a supposed decay in several other physical constant
s.
Setterfield's proposal has received criticism in the scientific community, including that his data is too noisy to show any strong correlation, and his argument is based on cherry picking
outlying points
in order to fit his model.
Setterfield's argument is highly dependent on Rømer's original measurement, which he copied from an issue of Sky and Telescope. This value was "301,300 plus or minus 200 km/sec", about 0.5% above the current value. However, the article was actually an excerpt from The Astronomical Journal, which disagrees completely, writing "The best fit occurs at zero where the light travel time is identical to the currently accepted value." In his analysis, Setterfield also left out a number of famous experiments measuring the speed of light, as well as a number of measurements in his quoted experiments. When these points are added back into the set, there is no apparent decay. More recent versions of Setterfield's paper include these figures, using adjusted mathematics to rebuild the curve. These mathematics have been the object of ridicule.
, an American physicist and creationist author, proposed in 1994 that the Earth is located near the center of a finite and bounded universe and that the entire universe expanded out of a white hole
. He claims that relativistic
time dilation
explains how billions of years elapsed in the distant universe while only a few days or weeks passed on Earth. Humphreys claims that his model explains cosmological redshifts and the cosmic microwave background radiation.
Humphreys' cosmology has been criticized by several creationists, and is rejected by the scientific community.
According to Alex Williams
, Humphreys' proposal grows out of the addition of three assumptions to Einstein
's equations: the universe has expanded from a previously denser state, the universe is bounded in space, and the earth is located at or near the center of the universe. The first assumption is supported by big bang cosmology, but according to Williams, the final two are rejected by the scientific community.
Physicist and philosopher of science J. Brian Pitts states that the result of Humphreys' proposal "is simply a modest variant of Big Bang cosmology that provides no help for young-earth creationists' light transit time problem".
cosmological theory on several grounds. One of the most common creationist criticisms of the Big Bang concerns the horizon problem
and supposed problems with the inflationary theory of the early universe. Creationists have claimed that dark matter
and dark energy
are doubtful concepts invented by Big Bang theorists in order to uphold the theory. Creationists also claim that the big bang should have produced equal amounts of matter and antimatter.
, and observational evidence of recent star formation. In particular, creationists dispute the widely accepted nebular hypothesis for star formation.
Creationists claim that Humphreys correctly predicted the magnetic field
s (magnetosphere
s) for Uranus and Neptune.
Young Earth creationism
Young Earth creationism is the religious belief that Heavens, Earth, and all life on Earth were created by direct acts of the Abrahamic God during a relatively short period, sometime between 5,700 and 10,000 years ago...
(YECs) that are designed to support the religious belief that the universe
Universe
The Universe is commonly defined as the totality of everything that exists, including all matter and energy, the planets, stars, galaxies, and the contents of intergalactic space. Definitions and usage vary and similar terms include the cosmos, the world and nature...
is only a few thousand years old, in line with a literal reading of Genesis. Creationist cosmologies are often concerned with solving the "starlight problem"; that light from galaxies at distances of billions of light-years takes billions of years to reach Earth, in contradiction to a proposed universe age of thousands of years. As the technical sophistication of YECs has increased over the years, new attempts to explain away the scientific evidence
Observation
Observation is either an activity of a living being, such as a human, consisting of receiving knowledge of the outside world through the senses, or the recording of data using scientific instruments. The term may also refer to any data collected during this activity...
for the age of the universe
Age of the universe
The age of the universe is the time elapsed since the Big Bang posited by the most widely accepted scientific model of cosmology. The best current estimate of the age of the universe is 13.75 ± 0.13 billion years within the Lambda-CDM concordance model...
of 13.7 billion years has also been incorporated. YECs now re-interpret phenomena such as galactic redshift
Redshift
In physics , redshift happens when light seen coming from an object is proportionally increased in wavelength, or shifted to the red end of the spectrum...
s and the cosmic microwave background (CMB) to fit into their beliefs, though there is no single creationist model which attempts to uphold the cosmic microwave background as interpreted by the Standard Model. They believe, along with advocates of intelligent design
Intelligent design
Intelligent design is the proposition that "certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection." It is a form of creationism and a contemporary adaptation of the traditional teleological argument for...
, that the universe is "finely tuned
Fine-tuned universe
The fine-tuned universe is the proposition that the conditions that allow life in the Universe can only occur when certain universal fundamental physical constants lie within a very narrow range, so that if any of several fundamental constants were only slightly different the universe would be...
" for life.
Creationist cosmologies are criticized for being pseudoscientific
Pseudoscience
Pseudoscience is a claim, belief, or practice which is presented as scientific, but which does not adhere to a valid scientific method, lacks supporting evidence or plausibility, cannot be reliably tested, or otherwise lacks scientific status...
, and rejected by the scientific community
Scientific community
The scientific community consists of the total body of scientists, its relationships and interactions. It is normally divided into "sub-communities" each working on a particular field within science. Objectivity is expected to be achieved by the scientific method...
. The scientific consensus
Scientific consensus
Scientific consensus is the collective judgment, position, and opinion of the community of scientists in a particular field of study. Consensus implies general agreement, though not necessarily unanimity. Scientific consensus is not by itself a scientific argument, and it is not part of the...
today is the Big Bang
Big Bang
The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological model that explains the early development of the Universe. According to the Big Bang theory, the Universe was once in an extremely hot and dense state which expanded rapidly. This rapid expansion caused the young Universe to cool and resulted in...
model, which was proposed in the 1920s and subsequently corroborated by Edwin Hubble
Edwin Hubble
Edwin Powell Hubble was an American astronomer who profoundly changed the understanding of the universe by confirming the existence of galaxies other than the Milky Way - our own galaxy...
's discovery of the Hubble Law in 1929, and later by the discovery of the cosmic microwave background radiation by Arno Allan Penzias
Arno Allan Penzias
Arno Allan Penzias is an American physicist and Nobel laureate in physics.-Early life and education:Penzias was born in Munich, Germany. At age six he was among the Jewish children evacuated to Britain as part of the Kindertransport rescue operation...
and Robert Woodrow Wilson
Robert Woodrow Wilson
For the American President, see Woodrow Wilson.Robert Woodrow Wilson is an American astronomer, 1978 Nobel laureate in physics, who with Arno Allan Penzias discovered in 1964 the cosmic microwave background radiation...
in 1964. These observations falsified
Falsifiability
Falsifiability or refutability of an assertion, hypothesis or theory is the logical possibility that it can be contradicted by an observation or the outcome of a physical experiment...
non-standard cosmologies
Non-standard cosmology
A non-standard cosmology is any physical cosmological model of the universe that has been, or still is, proposed as an alternative to the big bang model of standard physical cosmology...
. Other observational and theoretical inconsistencies were resolved by inflationary cosmology first described by Alan Guth
Alan Guth
Alan Harvey Guth is an American theoretical physicist and cosmologist. Guth has researched elementary particle theory...
in 1980 and it is now incorporated in the best-supported concordance model
Lambda-CDM model
ΛCDM or Lambda-CDM is an abbreviation for Lambda-Cold Dark Matter, which is also known as the cold dark matter model with dark energy...
of cosmology
Physical cosmology
Physical cosmology, as a branch of astronomy, is the study of the largest-scale structures and dynamics of the universe and is concerned with fundamental questions about its formation and evolution. For most of human history, it was a branch of metaphysics and religion...
.
Appearance of age (light created in transit)
The Omphalos hypothesis was originally proposed in the context of geologyGeology
Geology is the science comprising the study of solid Earth, the rocks of which it is composed, and the processes by which it evolves. Geology gives insight into the history of the Earth, as it provides the primary evidence for plate tectonics, the evolutionary history of life, and past climates...
, in the 1857 book Omphalos
Omphalos (book)
Omphalos: An Attempt to Untie the Geological Knot is a book by Philip Gosse, written in 1857 , in which he argues that the fossil record is not evidence of evolution, but rather that it is an act of creation inevitably made so that the world would appear to be older than it is...
by Philip Gosse
Philip Henry Gosse
Philip Henry Gosse was an English naturalist and popularizer of natural science, virtually the inventor of the seawater aquarium, and a painstaking innovator in the study of marine biology...
. The book sought to reconcile the long geological ages advocated by the leading geologist
Geologist
A geologist is a scientist who studies the solid and liquid matter that constitutes the Earth as well as the processes and history that has shaped it. Geologists usually engage in studying geology. Geologists, studying more of an applied science than a theoretical one, must approach Geology using...
of the time Charles Lyell
Charles Lyell
Sir Charles Lyell, 1st Baronet, Kt FRS was a British lawyer and the foremost geologist of his day. He is best known as the author of Principles of Geology, which popularised James Hutton's concepts of uniformitarianism – the idea that the earth was shaped by slow-moving forces still in operation...
, with a recent creation. Gosse claimed that universe has an appearance of age, but is actually very young. (Omphalos is Greek for navel/belly button. The theory suggests Adam and Eve did have navels, despite never having been born of human parents.) It was revived by creationists in the 20th century. Critics have parodied it as "Last Thursdayism", as in "the world might as well have been created last Thursday", with the physical world and even people's memories of earlier events being merely planted by God.
The Omphalos hypothesis, as applied to cosmology, attempts to answer the "starlight problem" by positing that light which appears to source from distant galaxies was actually created by God en-route, conveniently avoiding long light travel times.
c decay
The concept of c-decay was first proposed by Barry Setterfield in 1981 in an article for the Australian creationist magazine, Ex Nihilo, as an alternative to physical cosmologyPhysical cosmology
Physical cosmology, as a branch of astronomy, is the study of the largest-scale structures and dynamics of the universe and is concerned with fundamental questions about its formation and evolution. For most of human history, it was a branch of metaphysics and religion...
. Setterfield's proposal was that the speed of light (
), was infinite in the past, but has slowed substantially over time. Setterfield argues that this resolves the so-called "starlight problem", since light may have traveled fast enough in the past to reach Earth in thousands of years, despite being billions of light yearsLight Years
Light Years is the seventh studio album by Australian recording artist Kylie Minogue. It was released on 25 September 2000 by Parlophone and Mushroom Records. The album's style was indicative of her return to "mainstream pop dance tunes"....
away.
Setterfield selected a number of historical measurements of
starting with the original measurement by Ole Rømer in 1667, and proceeding through a series of more recent experiments, culminating in measurements taken in the 1960s. These showed a decreasing speed over time, which Setterfield claimed was in fact an exponential decay series that implied an infinite speed in the not distant past. He later expanded his claim to cover a supposed decay in several other physical constantPhysical constant
A physical constant is a physical quantity that is generally believed to be both universal in nature and constant in time. It can be contrasted with a mathematical constant, which is a fixed numerical value but does not directly involve any physical measurement.There are many physical constants in...
s.
Setterfield's proposal has received criticism in the scientific community, including that his data is too noisy to show any strong correlation, and his argument is based on cherry picking
Cherry picking
Cherry picking, suppressing evidence, or the fallacy of incomplete evidence is the act of pointing to individual cases or data that seem to confirm a particular position, while ignoring a significant portion of related cases or data that may contradict that position. It is a kind of fallacy of...
outlying points
Outlier
In statistics, an outlier is an observation that is numerically distant from the rest of the data. Grubbs defined an outlier as: An outlying observation, or outlier, is one that appears to deviate markedly from other members of the sample in which it occurs....
in order to fit his model.
Setterfield's argument is highly dependent on Rømer's original measurement, which he copied from an issue of Sky and Telescope. This value was "301,300 plus or minus 200 km/sec", about 0.5% above the current value. However, the article was actually an excerpt from The Astronomical Journal, which disagrees completely, writing "The best fit occurs at zero where the light travel time is identical to the currently accepted value." In his analysis, Setterfield also left out a number of famous experiments measuring the speed of light, as well as a number of measurements in his quoted experiments. When these points are added back into the set, there is no apparent decay. More recent versions of Setterfield's paper include these figures, using adjusted mathematics to rebuild the curve. These mathematics have been the object of ridicule.
White hole cosmology
Russell HumphreysRussell Humphreys
Dr. David Russell Humphreys is an American physicist and creationist author. He has offered a young Earth creationist cosmological model to deal with the distant starlight problem.-Education and affiliations:...
, an American physicist and creationist author, proposed in 1994 that the Earth is located near the center of a finite and bounded universe and that the entire universe expanded out of a white hole
White hole
A white hole, in general relativity, is a hypothetical region of spacetime which cannot be entered from the outside, but from which matter and light may escape. In this sense it is the reverse of a black hole, which can be entered from the outside, but from which nothing, including light, may escape...
. He claims that relativistic
General relativity
General relativity or the general theory of relativity is the geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1916. It is the current description of gravitation in modern physics...
time dilation
Time dilation
In the theory of relativity, time dilation is an observed difference of elapsed time between two events as measured by observers either moving relative to each other or differently situated from gravitational masses. An accurate clock at rest with respect to one observer may be measured to tick at...
explains how billions of years elapsed in the distant universe while only a few days or weeks passed on Earth. Humphreys claims that his model explains cosmological redshifts and the cosmic microwave background radiation.
Humphreys' cosmology has been criticized by several creationists, and is rejected by the scientific community.
According to Alex Williams
Alex Williams
Alexander Williams MBE is a retired English football goalkeeper.-Playing career:A product of the Manchester City youth scheme, he made his first team debut in the 1980–81 season, Succeeding Joe Corrigan in the City goal, he made a total of 125 appearances in six years, including two consecutive...
, Humphreys' proposal grows out of the addition of three assumptions to Einstein
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of general relativity, effecting a revolution in physics. For this achievement, Einstein is often regarded as the father of modern physics and one of the most prolific intellects in human history...
's equations: the universe has expanded from a previously denser state, the universe is bounded in space, and the earth is located at or near the center of the universe. The first assumption is supported by big bang cosmology, but according to Williams, the final two are rejected by the scientific community.
Physicist and philosopher of science J. Brian Pitts states that the result of Humphreys' proposal "is simply a modest variant of Big Bang cosmology that provides no help for young-earth creationists' light transit time problem".
Other theories
- John HartnettJohn Hartnett (physicist)John Hartnett , is an Australian physicist and cosmologist active in Creation Ministries International and known for an ardent opposition to the Big Bang theory and criticism of Dark Matter and Dark Energy hypothesis. He received both his B.Sc...
proposed a creationist cosmology which he claimed to be superior to Humphreys' "white hole cosmology". Hartnett's model incorporates a concept of "cosmological relativity" and a 5-dimension universe. Similar to Humphreys, Hartnett invokes time dilation in an attempt to solve the starlight problem, stating that "God designed the original creation in a state such that it would naturally expand, relaxing the fabric of space itself like an uncoiling spring."
- Gerald SchroederGerald SchroederGerald L. Schroeder is an Orthodox Jewish physicist, author and lecturer at Aish HaTorah's Discovery Seminar, Essentials and Fellowships programs and Executive Learning Center, who focuses on what he perceives to be an inherent relationship between science and spirituality.-Education:Schroeder...
argued the perceived flow of time for a given event in an expanding universe varies with the observer’s perspective of that event. He thus equates long ages with a short chronology. He professes Orthodox Judaism.
- Jason Lisle argued there are different ways of considering time, and the Bible might use a "phenomenologicalPhenomenology (science)The term phenomenology in science is used to describe a body of knowledge that relates empirical observations of phenomena to each other, in a way that is consistent with fundamental theory, but is not directly derived from theory. For example, we find the following definition in the Concise...
" (language of appearance) method. He suggests time could be reckoned according to when light reaches earth.
Criticism of the Big Bang theory
Proponents of creationism have attempted to discredit the standard Big bangBig Bang
The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological model that explains the early development of the Universe. According to the Big Bang theory, the Universe was once in an extremely hot and dense state which expanded rapidly. This rapid expansion caused the young Universe to cool and resulted in...
cosmological theory on several grounds. One of the most common creationist criticisms of the Big Bang concerns the horizon problem
Horizon problem
The horizon problem is a problem with the standard cosmological model of the Big Bang which was identified in the 1970s. It points out that different regions of the universe have not "contacted" each other because of the great distances between them, but nevertheless they have the same temperature...
and supposed problems with the inflationary theory of the early universe. Creationists have claimed that dark matter
Dark matter
In astronomy and cosmology, dark matter is matter that neither emits nor scatters light or other electromagnetic radiation, and so cannot be directly detected via optical or radio astronomy...
and dark energy
Dark energy
In physical cosmology, astronomy and celestial mechanics, dark energy is a hypothetical form of energy that permeates all of space and tends to accelerate the expansion of the universe. Dark energy is the most accepted theory to explain recent observations that the universe appears to be expanding...
are doubtful concepts invented by Big Bang theorists in order to uphold the theory. Creationists also claim that the big bang should have produced equal amounts of matter and antimatter.
Stellar and planetary formation
Creationists typically reject standard accounts of stellar evolutionStellar evolution
Stellar evolution is the process by which a star undergoes a sequence of radical changes during its lifetime. Depending on the mass of the star, this lifetime ranges from only a few million years to trillions of years .Stellar evolution is not studied by observing the life of a single...
, and observational evidence of recent star formation. In particular, creationists dispute the widely accepted nebular hypothesis for star formation.
Creationists claim that Humphreys correctly predicted the magnetic field
Magnetic field
A magnetic field is a mathematical description of the magnetic influence of electric currents and magnetic materials. The magnetic field at any given point is specified by both a direction and a magnitude ; as such it is a vector field.Technically, a magnetic field is a pseudo vector;...
s (magnetosphere
Magnetosphere
A magnetosphere is formed when a stream of charged particles, such as the solar wind, interacts with and is deflected by the intrinsic magnetic field of a planet or similar body. Earth is surrounded by a magnetosphere, as are the other planets with intrinsic magnetic fields: Mercury, Jupiter,...
s) for Uranus and Neptune.
Further reading
- Science and Creationism: A View from the National Academy of Sciences. National Academy of Sciences, 2nd edn (1999)
- Donald B. DeYoung, Astronomy and the Bible: Questions and Answers. Baker Books, 2nd edn, April 2000
- Danny R. Faulkner, Universe by Design. Master Books, September 2004
- John Hartnett, Starlight, Time and the New Physics. Creation Book Publishers, 2007
- Russell Humphreys, Starlight and Time. Master Books, 1994