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Creationist Astronomy ResourcesThe heavens declare his righteousness; every nation sees his glory.Ps 97:6 (NLT) Nothing seems to fill people with more wonder than looking up at a star-filled night sky; whether they believe in God or not or are not too sure what to believe. To me the heavens are a marvel and science and the finely tuned laws of physics only confirm my beliefs. So I have put this page up with the aim of providing links to resources that Christians, Theists in general or someone who is just curious can use to learn more about how Creationist view Cosmology. I don’t expect everyone to like or agree with that view but I think you might be surprised if you give it a fair hearing. But before I link to those resources, let’s set a few misconceptions straight. I don’t believe that the Earth is flat; if it were then the force of gravity would soon mold an object with a mass as large as the Earth’s into a spherical shape. I don’t know anyone who does think that the Earth is flat. I don’t believe that the Sun (or the entire Universe) revolves around the Earth; I think that Galileo and Newton (both professing Christians) knew what they were talking about. If they didn’t then geostationary satellites would be a little hard to explain. (They would fall straight down). I do accept the current view that stars in our galaxy are up to 100,000 light years away and that even the closest galaxy to our own (the Andromeda Galaxy) is about two million light years away and that the distance to the Andromeda Galaxy is trivial compared to the distance of the most distant Galaxies. (The latest estimates are over twelve billion light years). So when I look through my telescope I am seeing things that are real and that are a distance that is so far away that it can be described (without too much exaggeration) as mind blowing. The fact is that we live in a Universe Created by a God who is so big and powerful that it is awe inspiring. The DVD Indescribable by Louie Giglio pretty much sums it all up. The only problem is if we live in such a big Universe then how did the light get here from distant galaxies in the time that the Bible indicates? There are a number of explanations but I personally prefer the view put forward by people like John Hartnet and Alex Williams. In their book Dismantling the Big Bang they examine the contemporary (naturalistic) view of the origin of the Universe and call it into question. John Hartnet was not content just to criticize the Big Bang but has put forward a cosmology that is based on a theory put forward by Moshe Carmeli. The theory takes the already complex theory of General Relativity and extends it to incorporate a dimension that is referred to as spacevelocity (the stretching of space). Like Eistien's original theories the Carmeli-Hartnet cosmology is beautiful in that it solves a lot of problems that were yet to be aesthetically explained, such as 'The missing mass'. Dark matter and dark energy are supposed to come to the rescue but like the methodical approach to physics did away with the mysterious phlogiston, the Carmeli-Hartnet model does away with the need for such add hoc explanations. Hartnet writes about it in his book Starlight, Time and the New Physics. I’m not going to claim that I really understand General Relativity. I have a vague conceptual understanding of Special Relativity. What I do understand however, is that General Relativity has implications for the time it takes for light to travel within a gravity well. The implication is that clocks run at different speeds. That means that under the right set of circumstances a clock on the Earth could run at a virtual standstill compared to a clock in a distant galaxy and so give the light sufficient ‘time’ to travel incomprehensibly large distances within a short time as measured by a clock on the Earth. GPS satellites and nuclear clocks have leant their weight to the theory of General Relativity and the effect of gravity on time. But the Carmeli-Hartnet model goes even further. According to Hartnet, “... very rapid expansion of the cosmos ... caused Earth clocks to run very slowly compared to cosmic clocks.” I have attempted to nutshell a complicated concept and have not done it justice in a few short paragraphs. However Hartnet's book addresses several objections that some readers are sure to have. John Hartnet is a physicist and he has been published in peer reviewed journals and holds two patents. He has worked on a clock that has a better precision than a nuclear clock. I wholeheartedly recommend Dismantling The Big Bang, I would also recommend Starlight, Time and the New Physics since it does have seven chapters written in reasonably plain English (considering how complicated the topic is) but unless you have a strong background in Physics and Mathematics you would struggle to follow the technical explanation in the Appendices. You can purchase both books from the Creation Ministries International website. The DVD, The Privileged Planet shows that the Earth, it’s position in space and the laws of physics not only look like they were designed for life but that they were designed for scientific observation as well. It is one thing to say that our being alive is a requirement for us to be able to observe the fact that this Universe is highly suited for life but that still leaves the question, “What necessitates our being able to make scientific discoveries?” Other good resources include Lee Strobel’s website where you can view videos online for free that are based on themes related to his books including The Case for the Creator. The Creation Ministries International website has many online articles and other online resources available on many topics related to Creation. These topics include astronomy, Creation and Evolution, dinosaurs and the Bible, Noah’s flood, Cain’s wife and more. It is possible to love astronomy and science and believe in the Bible. Our small pale blue dot (the Earth) might seem insignificant compared to the whole Universe but I find great assurance in knowing that I was created by a very big and powerful God. Kind regards, Les Ey |