time – The Critical Eye

A YEC question about stars and time

Recently I cam across a question posted by a YEC regarding stars and older events in our universe. Here it is followed by my brief answer.

Now I am no astrophysicist, but I do know that science pretty well agrees on the big bang. Therefore the oldest event in the universe is everything originating at the same point.
It is said when we look deeper into space we see older events. Yet, how does that account for the older events happening closer together since the universe is in fact expanding with time? And the older you get the more compressed everything becomes. Is this not true for time as well?

Now I am no astrophysicist either but from what I know, space time like a 3 dimensional grid (actually in theory it is 4 dimensional). FYI, the expansion is not at a consistent rate throughout history. Light as you know, the further it goes from the source, the more it scatters. But also remember that light is both wave and a particle. And that there is a lot of matter in the universe which affects light because of gravity.

Now, the expansion of the universe is happening, we know that. But why is it happening and what it really means to expand?

Consider a stick of gum and put four small objects on it, two objects on either ends, call them group L1 and group L2, mark their position and then stretch the gum. You will see that the distance between group L1 and L2 on either sides of the gum increased from each other but their location on the gum itself hasn’t changed at all, it is the same. The whole gum has expanded.

The same way, the universe expanded, and the expansion which is happening now is because of inertia of the Bigbang. But there is matter in the universe and there is gravity present so the bodies which get closer together, bond with gravity and thus they remain at the same distance at which they bonded. It is simply that their space, like in the gum example, is being stretched but because of their gravitation bond they are not expanding away from each other.

Meaning L1 and L2 moved apart but the two bodies in L2 remained bonded to each other while expanding away from L1 altogether.

Bodies which gravitate towards each other are released from the inertia effect of the big bang therefore they stay with each other because of the gravity in between them. This is the precise reason why the Andromeda galaxy is not moving away but in fact moving towards the milky way galaxy, because of the gravitational force present.

I have oversimplified it but that is the basic thing.

m31_ware — The Andromeda Galaxy. Andromeda is the nearest major galaxy to our own Milky Way Galaxy. Our Galaxy is thought to look much like Andromeda. Together these two galaxies dominate the Local Group of galaxies. The diffuse light from Andromeda is caused by the hundreds of billions of stars that compose it. The several distinct stars that surround Andromeda’s image are actually stars in our Galaxy that are well in front of the background object. Andromeda is frequently referred to as M31 since it is the 31st object on Messier’s list of diffuse sky objects. M31 is so distant it takes about two million years for light to reach us from there. Much about M31 remains unknown, including why the center contains two nuclei.

The Creation Argument: How the atheist’s view creates a logical problem

One of the most hotly debated argument when it comes to proving or dis-approving God is “How The Universe was Created?”

Let me begin by saying that I do not think God made this universe in six days and I also conclude that it might have taken billions of years for evolution to take control of our planet.

Thus saying do I concur with science? yes I do.

Do I negate the Biblical story, no. I can only assume that thousands of years ago, man did not have the unblinking, revealing nature and reality of the cosmos.

Do I think that it is an error? certainly not. All discovery is limited by our own perceptions. The Bible is filled with poetry and metaphorical language and though I am sure that there is no hidden pattern or clues hidden in it for a higher truth than the knowledge of science about our universe. I am sure that most of the biblical language is not be taken and interpreted literally, it should be within its context, translated and understood.