Lesson 5
Age of The
Universe &
Earth
How Long Are The
“Days” In Genesis?
The Hebrew word for “day” is
(YOM).
Depending on context, it can mean
1. A 24 hour day,
2. The daylight portion of a day, or
3. An indefinite period of time.
All Scripture is Inspired by God...
All Scripture is Inspired by God...
This Scripture was written
with His own finger.
For [in] six days the LORD made heaven and
earth, the sea, and all that in them [is]...
(Exod. 20:11)
YEARS SINCE CREATION (Hebrew Text)
Reasons People Believe
The Universe Is Old:
1. If it’s only a few thousand years old, what was
God doing all that time before He created it?
2. Starting from a “big bang,” it would have taken
billions of years to reach its present size.
3. How could light from stars billions of light years
away reach us in only a few thousand years?
How can we see light from stars
billions of light years away if the
earth is young?
• Size of universe
unknown –
calculated based
on a series of
assumptions.
Possible answers:
i. “Light Paths”
from the stars.
ii. Curved Space.
iii. Speed of light may have been much faster in the past.
iv. Light may travel faster in deep space than close to
earth.
v. Gravitational Time Dilation.
vi. Unknown factors.
Curved Space
Relativity says that gravity distorts space, much like a weight
distorts the surface of a rubber membrane.
Light would not have to
go to the bottom of the
“well” to go from A to
B. It would take the
shortest route,
through curved
space.
MIT’s Moon & Spencer calculate that it would take no more than
15.71 years for light to travel between any two points in the
universe.
Is Light Slowing Down?
Best fit curve to speed-of-light values determined
from 1740-1980 showing apparent exponential
decay. (After Setterfield & Norman, The Atomic
Constants, Light and Time.)
Cautions:
(1) Little data is available from before
1840.
(2) The decrease is less than 1/3 of 1%
- not enough to convince most
scientists.
Black Holes
A black hole is a theoretical concentration of mass so great that
not even light can escape its gravitational pull.
Since the force of
gravity drops off by
the square of the
distance, there is a
radius called the
event horizon
outside which
light will not be
drawn in.
The theory of relativity says that bizarre things happen to time
near and inside the event horizon.
Gravitational Time Dilation
I. Start Of Expansion
Sphere of water has
diameter of perhaps 2
light years; Depending on
exact amount of matter,
event horizon may be as
much as 450,000,000
light years.
Time is uniform
throughout the matter
(water) sphere.
Gravitational Time Dilation
II. MATTER REACHES
EVENT HORIZON
Matter has spread to
event horizon. Expansion
of space is not bound by
the speed of light; may
have been 1020 times
faster, so process need
not take more than a few
earth hours.
Time still fairly uniform
throughout.
Gravitational Time Dilation
III. MATTER PASSES
EVENT HORIZON
Matter begins to pass
the event horizon; the
more that leaves, the
more the horizon
shrinks.
Proper time inside
horizon moves much
slower than outside.
Gravitational Time Dilation
IV. EVENT HORIZON
SHRINKS TO NOTHING.
As more matter leaves the
event horizon, it shrinks away
to nothing. Since the earth is
fairly close to the center, it
stays inside the event horizon
longer than most of the
universe, resulting in much
less proper time elapsing on
earth than far away.
As the event horizon passes through the earth, proper time here
approaches infinity. Millions of years could pass in space during one
day here.
Characteristics of an Accurate Clock
1. Initial Conditions Known.
What time did the clock say when it was
wound up?
2. Known Rate of Change.
The clock need not always run at
the same rate, but if it changes we
must know when and by how much.
3. Closed System.
The clock must not have been reset or
tampered with.
Since we can’t be sure of any of these for any “clock” in nature, we
should use many different methods to determine a maximum possible
age.
Out of all the dating methods, less than 10% point toward a
maximum of billions of years. The rest point toward millions or
even thousands.
Spiral Galaxies
There are many
spiral galaxies
throughout the
universe.
NASA photos of spiral
galaxiesM81 and M101.
The arms wind in toward the center with each revolution. Within a few
hundred million years there would be no arms left.
Some of the stars in spiral galaxies are supposed to be more than ten
billion years old. However, the arms on the galaxies point to an age of
far less than one billion years.
Supernova Remnants
Whole-Sky surveys reveal that a supernova occurs about every 25 years
in a galaxy the size of our Milky Way. According to evolutionary theory,
the remnants go through 3 stages.
NASA photo of the Crab Nebula, a well-known supernova remnant
Supernova Remnants
Number of Supernova Remnants That Should Be
Detectable In Milky Way:
Stage I Stage II Stage III
If Galaxy at Least 2 2256 5033
1,000,000 Years Old:
If about 7,000 Years 2 268 0
Actual Number Detected 5 200 0
The data is consistent with a young galaxy, not an old one.
Short Period Comets
Short period comets orbit the sun at least once every
200 years.
Comets lose a
significant amount of mass
each time they fly by the sun.
Within about 10,000 years all the short
period comets would be gone. Yet
there are still hundreds (at least).
NASA photo of Halley’s
This points toward a maximum age of
Comet, a typical short the solar system of less than 10,000
period comet. years.
Comets And The “Kuiper Belt”
The hypothetical Kuiper Belt is supposed to extend slightly above and
below the plane of the solar system. However, short period comets orbit
the sun in many different planes. Only a few of them could possibly have
come from the Kuiper Belt.
Volcanic Activity On Io
In 1979 the Voyager spacecraft discovered a volcanic eruption
on Jupiter’s tiny moon Io more violent than any ever seen on
earth.
If the solar system is billions of years old, small objects far from
the sun should be cold and inactive. However, Io is the most
geologically active body in the solar system.
Maybe the solar system is not billions of years old after all.
Poynting-Robertson Effect
Light streaming from the sun causes a drag force on dust
particles in orbit around it. This slows them down so that they
gradually spiral into the sun.
Within 189,000 years, all dust particles 1/10 mm or smaller would have
been “vacuumed up” at least as far as earth’s orbit. However, a great
deal of dust this size falls on the earth every year.
This implies that the solar system is far less than 189,000 years old.
Recession of the Moon
As the moon orbits the earth, its force of attraction causes tides and
bulges. This slows the earth’s rotation down by about 2/1000 of a
second per day each century.
The angular momentum of a rotating system
must be conserved. As the rate of rotation
decreases the diameter must increase, and vice versa.
(Like a figure skater on TV.)
In order to conserve angular momentum as the
earth-moon system slows down, the moon has to move
away.
If it started at the surface of the earth, it would
have taken no more than 1.37 billion years to reach
Its present distance – less than 1/4 as much time as evolution
requires.
Lack of Solar Neutrinos
The sun could burn for billions of years only if it were performing large-
scale nuclear fusion. One required step is to turn hydrogen-1 into
hydrogen-2 as follows:
Where is an exotic particle known as a positron, and is a
massless particle of energy called a neutrino.
Problem: we have only detected about 1/3 the expected number of
Neutrinos, and we can’t even be sure they are coming from the sun.
If it is performing nuclear fusion, it is on nowhere near the scale to keep
It burning for billions of years.
The Solar Temperature Dilemma
If the sun does not work by nuclear fusion it would have burned
out in a few hundred thousand years.
If it does work by nuclear fusion it would have been about 5%
cooler a billion years ago. The earth would have been covered
with a crust of ice and would have been unable to sustain the
plant life we find in the fossil record.
Evidence for a Young Sun
1. The sun is supposed to be about 4.6 billion years old. Evolutionary
theory says it should be about 15 million degrees. However, it
contains a great deal of beryllium, which breaks down at 4 million.
It must be less than 4 million degrees. Either evolutionary theory is
wrong, or the sun is not as old and hot as it’s supposed to be, or
both.
2. If the sun has been burning for billions of
years it should have developed a dense
core by now. However, the rate at which
it oscillates in and out due to the
opposing forces of gravity and heat is
incompatible with a dense core. It must
not have been burning long enough to
develop one.