The Verdict of Reason
The ‘Science Guy’ continues to look at evidence for a ‘Young Earth’ as found in various scientific disciplines. Today’s installment will examine some of the anomalies of astronomy.
THE SOLAR SYSTEM
Jerry Zeis
We are getting ever closer to showing the theories of an old Earth just don’t hold water. We have covered many fields of study, and not once seen that creation from God is impossible. Dr. Jason Lisle of ICR and Answers in Genesis put it this way. “This fundamental time discrepancy is no small matter. It is obvious that if the secular age estimate is correct, then the Bible is in error and cannot be trusted. Conversely, if the Bible really is what it claims to be, the authoritative Word of God (2 Timothy 3:16), then something is seriously wrong with the secular estimates for the age of the universe. Since the secular time scale challenges the authority of Scripture, Christians must be ready to give an answer—a defense of the biblical time scale.
I will cover many facts today. There are thousands of articles covering this topic. I will just point out some issues with long ages for each planet and our Sun in the solar system. The work again, is credited to Dr. Lisle., he wrote several articles in Acts and Facts magazine during 2013 on the topic. Psalm 19:1-2 “The Heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship. Day after day they continue to show his handiwork. Night after night they make him known. This is how God does it.”
Mercury – God created a wonderful planet. You could walk westward and never see a sunrise, it is rotating that slowly. Mercury shows that the solar system is not 5 billion years old by a magnetic field. The magnetic field of a small planet cannot endure. It slowly fades away. If carried backwards in time, it would be too big and it would rip the planet apart. Mercury had its magnetic field measured in 1974 and again in 2008 by passing spacecraft. It detectable decreased following a regular curve. The conclusion was that the planet was about 6,000 years old.
Venus is the brightest object after the Sun and Moon, known as the morning star and evening star. It befuddles physicists with its rotation. It actually rotates backwards! When viewed from a north pole, it rotates clockwise. Gravity on planets will slowly cause all of them to lock and spin equal to its year. This is true of Mercury, and the moon. There is no reason for Venus to have angular momentum that is the reverse of the rest of the solar system. Where did that originate from?
The Earth and Moon – As a pair, they are almost in dual orbits. No other planet and satellite even comes close to their size ratio. The uniqueness of the Earth makes it the only planet hospitable for life. Magnetic fields to deflect radiation. Solid ground, liquid water, ozone layer, atmosphere; no other planet has a fraction of these. If there were no atmosphere, the liquid water would boil away! Why does the magnetic field reverse? No one has solved even why there is a field still, let alone it reverses. Moon rocks have been dated to 4.5 billion years ago. The Moon moves away from us at 1.5 inches per year. The Moon has been theorized to have been spit out of the earth when both were still molten. The problem with this is if you follow the Moon’s recession away and add in that the recession is slowing down, then 1.5 billion years ago the two would have been touching. This is a problem for a 4 billion year old rock. If the Moon was 6,000 years old, it would have only moved a quarter mile!
Mars – The planet that for years was considered Earth’s twin, the planet that inspired many an alien life form. Scientists believe it once had copious amounts of water, but has since left catastrophically. There are dry river beds and deltas that are visible. Have they ever realized the hypocrisy of that statement after saying the Earth could never have had a global flood, even when the Earth is 70% water?
Jupiter, the largest planet has many problems with billions of years. It too has a magnetic field, why has not it decayed in billions of years. Jupiter gives off twice the energy than it receives from the sun. What is causing this internal heat? It should have long since cooled being gaseous hydrogen and helium. It moons are a source of great scientific curiosity with many unique characteristics. These moons are visible with a good set of binoculars, and contain many interesting features.
Saturn is the planet famous for its beautiful rings. The rings are visible with a small backyard telescope. The planet is mostly gas, and would actually float on water. Again, the moons of Saturn tell about God. Titan, the second largest moon in the solar system has an atmosphere of methane. This is a chemical that would have long ago broken down in solar radiation, unless it is being created by alien life, or is 6,000 years old. Another moon has water geysers. In billions of years, the internal heat to make gas geysers should have run out. The gravity and tides are not providing enough energy. The moon should have hollowed out, and cooled billions of years ago. This is one reason why NASA is so interested in exploring Jupiter’s and Saturn’s moons
Uranus, barely visible to the naked eye, it was the first planet discovered in modern times. Its uniqueness lies in its rotation. The north pole of revolution would point directly at the Sun. This could not happen by chance. Physics dictates it should be perpendicular to the rotation around the Sun. Even the 23o tilt of the Earth is unusual, but it is what gives us seasons. The magnetic field is also perplexing. There is no internal heat to spin a dynamo. [If it were really billions of years old], it should have long since decayed. Additionally, it does not go through the center of the planet.
Neptune, a twin of Uranus is a planet discovered by a pencil, and not a telescope. The orbits of other planets did not match up correctly with gravity calculations. In the 1800’s the math was done, and the telescope was pointed right at where the planet was. Unlike Uranus, Neptune has considerable internal heat, radiating more than twice the energy it receives from the sun. It is hard to imagine how such a process could last for billions of years, but is not a problem for the biblical timescale. In addition, it is curious that Uranus lacks any internal heat, despite being nearly identical to Neptune in every other way. How can an evolutionary scenario make sense of this? Additionally, it has the same magnetic field issues as Uranus, but not the spin on its side problems. Yet, this similarity-with-differences is a common characteristic that the Lord built into the universe. Diversity with unity is part of what makes science possible and is what we expect from the triune God.
The Sun contains 99% of our solar systems mass. Made mostly of Hydrogen and Helium, it is in effect a large balanced nuclear bomb. It has surprised secular thinkers in that it has stayed balanced for billions of years while changing in intensity a projected 30%. A billion years ago the Earth would have been unable to sustain life as we know it at the frigid temperatures it had.
Other Objects – Pluto now classified as a dwarf planet or a trans-Neptunian object (TNO) has orbital irregularities that helped it get reclassified. It rotates on its side; it revolves around the Sun in an oval, and does not lie in a flat plane like the rest of the planets.
Comets are dirty ice balls that travel in long elliptical orbits around the Sun. as they get near the Sun, bright tails of evaporating ice can be seen. But why are there still comets? The life expectancy of the average comet is only several hundred years until it boils away to nothing. In a universe with billions of years, they should have long ago run out. Scientists have invented a Kuiper belt, and an Ort cloud that can restock them. The Kuiper belt is just past Pluto, and the Ort cloud goes nearly to the next star, outside the effects of the Suns gravity, but for some reason still orbiting the Sun. There is no proof of either of these depositories, but it fits theories on why there are comets. The theory goes that a passing invisible star throws a comet out of orbit in the Ort cloud and into orbit around the Sun. Can you imagine undetected stars closer than the closest stars passing by regularly?
The conclusion based just on our solar system alone points to a 6,000 year creation, not billions of years ago. A secular world view of no God leads to the misinterpretation of the facts. The truth gets lost just as one small lie leads to another, and the final story does not resemble what we started with. This is why God gave us his Word, so we can always press reset, go to the bible and start over again from the beginning with theories and facts fitting into the truth.
[i] Dr Don DeYoung & Dr Jason Lisle, Does Astronomy Confirm a Young Universe?, Answers in Genesis, June 9, 2014
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