Physical Evidence of Age

Physical Evidence of Age   

 

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The Age of Light from Stars

 

According to the Genesis record of creation, on the first day, God said “Let there be light.” The most obvious interpretation of that statement is that on the first day, God created the universe, and that is a common belief between most young earth creationists and most day age creationists. After that, the interpretations differ greatly. It is not a surprise to hear that a young earth creationist is skeptical about the physical evidence of the age of the universe because most of the evidence about the age of the universe is presented in a form that seems to assume that the reader already believes that the universe is very old and/or it assumes that the reader has a college education in physics and/or it leaves gaping holes in the reasoning that supports the conclusion that the universe is very old.

 

However, the purpose of the message about sight of the Lord creation is to enable the young earth creationist to accept that there is no breach of truth when accepting that the Genesis record of creation may be interpreted to mean that the universe is very old, and it is important to express that belief so that the listening non-believer can accept the remaining parts of the word of God, and all of that message is fruitless, if the young earth creationist is not convinced that there is any physical evidence that the universe is very old.

 

To overcome that problem this part of the message provides an investigation of the physical evidence of the age of the universe. It will assume that the reader believes in God, and it will not assume that the reader already believes that the universe is very old, and it will not assume that the reader has a college education in physics, and it will attempt to put the pieces together well enough to make a whole picture.

 

To begin the investigation, consider the question “How can we know how old is the universe?” The answer to the question is that it is at least as old as the stars because it includes the stars. It is possible for the universe to be older than the stars, but the pursuit of that topic would have no benefit for the subject of this investigation.

 

That leads to the next question which is “How can we know how old are the stars?” The answer to the question is that they are at least as old as the light that they produced because they cannot produce light before they exist. It is possible for God to create light without a star, but it would be a deception for Him to present a detailed image that provides detailed evidence of something that never happened, and doing so would be presenting evidence that contradicts His own word, and the details of the image would not be necessary to support the creation of earth or life on earth. There should be no need to present proof to the believers that God would not deceive us, and a nonbeliever has no reason to consider such a possibility.

 

That leads to the next question which is “How can we know how old is the light that comes from a star?” The first part of the answer to that question is relatively simple. The speed of light is well known very accurately, and there is no reason to doubt it because it can be measured on earth, and it is an essential peace of information which is needed for designing electronic communications equipment such as that which supports cell phones and Wi-Fi and satellite TV. Based on that information, we can calculate the age of the light that comes from a star by using the following equation.

 

age of the light = distance to star ÷ speed of light

 

Therefore, if the star is very far away, then the light has been traveling for a very long time before it reached the earth, and it was produced by a star that existed a very long time ago. That leads to the next question which is “How can we know the distance to a star?”

 

To understand the answer to that question, it is necessary to begin by defining two sets of words which are necessary to express the following equation. The intensity of an astronomical light source is the power per area that reaches the earth from the light source, and in the equation that follows, its short name is “intensity of star light”. In other words, the intensity of star light is the answer to the question “How bright (in units of power per area) is the light from that star?” The luminosity of an astronomical light source is the total power that it radiates in all directions, and in the equation that follows, its short name is “luminosity of star”. If two stars have the same luminosity and different distance from the earth, then the one that is closer has a greater intensity of light.

 

In this investigation, those two values are input to an equation which is called the “luminosity distance equation”, and more information can be found about this subject by searching the internet for “luminosity distance equation”. It is presented in many forms which may require starting with some other equation and solving for distance to get the following equation. This is the luminosity distance equation. It is the answer to the question that asks “How can we know the distance to a star?”

 

It is not difficult to test and verify the luminosity distance equation by measuring the distance, intensity and luminosity of a light which radiates light in a dark space on earth. The test requires a light sensor that can measure the intensity of the light just like what is done for the stars, and it requires a simple measurement of the distance from the sensor to the light source on earth, and the luminosity is the amount of electrical power consumed by the light source times the efficiency of the light source. The same equation works with stars as well as lights on earth.

 

The intensity of the star light is measured directly by a light sensor on a telescope. However, that leads to the next question which is “How can we know the luminosity of a distant star?” The answer to the question is that the luminosity of a star can be determined by its color.

 

So far, this message has explained the following.

  1.    The age of the universe is the age of its light.
  2.    The age of the light is the distance that it traveled divided by the speed of light.
  3.    The speed of light is known.
  4.    The distance that the light has traveled can be determined by the luminosity distance equation which depends on the intensity of light from the star and the luminosity of the star.
  5.    The intensity of the light from the star is measured directly by a light sensor on a telescope.
  6.    The luminosity of the star can be determined by the color of its light.

 

At this point, it is possible to declare a complete explanation for how we can know the age of the universe, and skip ahead to the subject of fossil fuels. Otherwise, if the reader wishes to know “how can we tell the luminosity of a star based on the color of its light,” then this message will answer that question, but this one goes deeper into the laws of physics.

 

To answer that question, it is necessary to travel a path of understanding cause and effect that begins at the size of an astronomical object (a star or planet or other object in outer space), and it ends at the color of light that the astronomical object radiates. The path explores what happens if an astronomical object is much smaller than the sun. The path starts here.

 

Weight and mass are often thought to mean the same thing, but they are not the same. On the surface of the earth, weight is caused by mass, and it is proportional to mass, but at a distance that is far from the earth, they have much less weight and no change of mass. Mass is proportional to size (volume), unless there is a substantial difference of mass density which is not the case when comparing stars. For that reason, the mass of a star or planet is proportional to it size (volume). In other words, we can be sure that smaller stars or planets have less mass.

 

Gravity is caused by mass. More mass causes more gravity, and less mass has less gravity. In other words, stars or planets that have less mass will have less gravity. For that reason, in combination with the previous information, we can be sure that smaller stars or planets have less mass which have less gravity.

 

Gravity holds together the material within a star or planet. If not for the gravity of the earth, the water in the oceans would float away into outer space. The same effect is going on in the stars. The gravity pulls the hot gasses together with so much force that they become liquid. The pressure at the center of the star is much higher than the pressure at the surface because it is beneath all the rest of the mass which is all being pulled down toward the center of the star.

 

High pressure causes material to be compressed. If a material is compressed, its volume decreases while its mass is unchanged. In other words, it is squished. For example, in a refrigerator, cooling fluid is compressed from gas to liquid which causes it to heat up. Next, the heat is dissipated by a radiator. Next, the pressure is released which causes the liquid to decompress and become gas again which causes it to cool down to a temperature that is below the outdoor temperature which is used to cool the content of the refrigerator.

 

The sun and other stars have a vary large size which causes very high mass which causes very high gravity which causes very high pressure at the center of the star which causes very high compression at the center of the star which compresses the atoms together so hard that it causes nuclear fusion which causes the production of power in the form of heat which causes the star to produce light. Note that nuclear weapons and nuclear reactors use nuclear fission (second letter “i”) which does not require compression, but nuclear fusion (second letter “u”) in stars requires compression.

 

However, if the star is smaller than the sun, then it has less mass which causes less gravity and less pressure and less compression which causes less nuclear fusion which causes less production of power and less production of light. Or if it is too small, then it may not radiate any light at all because it does not produce any heat at all because it does not have any nuclear fusion at all.

 

Stars radiate light for the same reason that old fashion incandescent lights radiate light, but not LEDs or florescent lights. Incandescent lights convert electrical power into heat, and stars convert nuclear power into heat. Both convert power into heat. In both cases, the heat escapes from the heat source by transforming into light which radiates from the surface of the heat source which is also the surface of the light source. The luminosity of the light source equals the power of the heat source.

 

In both cases, the color of the light depends on the surface temperature in such a way that lower surface temperatures radiate reddish light or no visible light, although they do radiate infrared light. Measuring the relationships between the amount of power and the surface area and the surface temperature and the color of light that it radiates is no more difficult than measuring the detailed characteristics of an old fashion incandescent light. Furthermore, both incandescent lights and stars conform to the Stefan-Boltzmann law as follows.

 

power = (surface area) x  x  x (surface temperature)4

luminosity = power

 

In this equation,  is the emissivity of the surface, which is nearly equal to 1 on the stars, and it is never more than 1, and it is between 1 and 0.5 for most unpolished surfaces, and  is the Stefan-Boltzmann constant which has one constant value for all sorts of surfaces, and the surface temperature is measured in degrees kelvin. More information about this subject is available by searching the internet for Stefan-Boltzmann law. In the case of a star or other astronomical object, this power is the total power that it radiates in all directions, which was previously defined as its luminosity.

 

Note that in this equation, if the surface area changes, and if the power changes by the same factor as that of the surface area, then the surface temperature does not change. So, if an astronomical object has only 1% as much surface area as the sun, and if it has only 1% as much power as the sun, then its surface temperature is the same as the sun, but if it has much less than 1% as much power as the sun, then its surface temperature is much less than the sun. The remaining question is how do real astronomical objects fill in the numbers in this equation.

 

A star that is much smaller than the sun is called a red dwarf, and it radiates little or no light that is visible to the human eye, but it radiates infrared light which is visible to manmade sensors like those that can view the weather on earth from satellites in outer space. If the material that could make a star is collected into an astronomical object that is smaller than a red dwarf, then it is not a star or a red dwarf because it has little or no nuclear fusion at all.

 

For example, the planet Jupiter is not a star or a red dwarf because it is too small to be a star or a red dwarf. Its mass is about 0.1% as much as the sun, and its surface area is about 1% as much as the sun, and its diameter is about 10% as much as the sun, and its diameter is about 10 times as much as the earth, and its power is much less than 1% as much as the sun because it is not a star or a red dwarf because it has little or no nuclear fusion at all because it does not have enough gravitational compression to enable nuclear fusion because it does not have enough gravity because it does not have enough mass.

 

According to the Stefan-Boltzmann law, Jupiter has a surface temperature that is much lower than the sun because its surface area is about 1% as much as the sun, and its power is much less than 1% as much as the sun. For that reason, the color of its light is not near to that of the sun. That information is verified by many sorts of observation of the planet Jupiter. A deeper study of this subject would show that even for a star that has half as much power (luminosity) as the sun, it is not too difficult to tell that it has less power (luminosity) than the sun just by measuring the color of the light from that star.

 

Jupiter is an extreme example of the trend that is exhibited by stars and other astronomical objects, such that smaller stars have less surface area and less power and less luminosity, but the power and luminosity drops off more quickly than the surface area because the power of nuclear fusion drops off more quickly than the surface area. Inserting that trend into the Stefan-Boltzmann law shows that the stars with less power and luminosity have a lower surface temperature, and that affects the color of the light with the same trend that is measured on old fashion incandescent lights, and that is verified by observation of Jupiter.

 

That is the answer to the question “How can we tell the luminosity of a star based on the color of its light?”

 

Fossil Fuels are Evidence of God’s Work

 

Even if there is physical evidence that the distant stars are very old, that does not prove that the earth is very old. So this investigation will explore physical evidence that the earth is very old. It will assume that the reader believes in God, and it will not assume that the reader already believes that the earth is very old, and it will not assume that the reader has a college education in physics or biochemistry, and it will not involve the subject of evolution, but it will assume that the reader understands two senior high school parts of biochemistry which are that plants convert light and carbon dioxide and water into oxygen and hydrocarbons and that fossil fuels are primarily composed of hydrocarbons.

 

The creation record tells us that on the third day, God created the vegetation, but He did not create the living creatures until the fifth day. Those two facts plus basic biochemistry enables us to understand that on the third and fourth day, vegetation converted light, water and carbon dioxide into oxygen and hydrocarbon, and the oxygen was necessary to support the living creatures on the fifth day and on the days that followed.

 

Vegetation cannot produce oxygen without also producing hydrocarbon. So on the third and fourth day, while producing oxygen, which would eventually support living creatures, the vegetation also produced hydrocarbon, which was not consumed by living creatures, which had not yet been created. Even if living creatures did exist at that time, they apparently did not consume all of the hydrocarbon. The fossil fuels are the decomposed residue of hydrocarbon, which was produced by the vegetation. So the oxygen and fossil fuels are evidence of the process which took place during the third and fourth day of creation.

 

If the Bible had been written by primitive men without any instruction from God, then they would not have known that vegetation must come before living creatures, and they would not have known about the fossil fuels. However, the Bible was written by men who were inspired by God who instructed them to write things that they did not understand.

 

At the time of this investigation, a recent controversy has come to the attention of the general public. The controversy is about global warming. Men are arguing about what is causing global warming and what to do about it. However, there is no debate about the fact that the level of carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere is increasing or the fact that the carbon dioxide has come from the process of burning fuel which is made from fossil fuel for the purpose of producing energy. This controversy serves to call our attention to the record of His work. Every time we drive or ride down the road, we are depending on the evidence of age to turn the wheels of our automobiles.

 

If we can accept that each day of creation was hundreds of millions of years, then the fossil fuels are evidence that the word of God is true. However, if we require that the whole process must have occurred in just two days of man (48 hours), then this reasoning falls apart. The problem is that the vegetation must work very hard to fill the air with oxygen. It would take many years for the vegetation to fill the air with oxygen all over the whole earth. The vegetation needs energy from the light in order to convert carbon dioxide into oxygen. So, to convert carbon dioxide into oxygen at a much higher speed would require a much more powerful source of light, but that much more powerful light would also produce a much higher temperature, which would kill the vegetation. This is not related to the subject of evolution. This is basic biochemistry.

 

Certainly, God had the power to quickly create enough oxygen to fill the air all over the whole earth without any help from the vegetation. However, if He had done that, then He would not have needed to create fossil fuels while creating oxygen because He does not need to work in the same way as vegetation, and the fossil fuels are not necessary to support life on earth. In that case, fossil fuels would be fake evidence of the age of the earth.

 

This is a good example of what is wrong with the argument that God created the earth with evidence of age supposedly because it was necessary to support life on earth. The problem is that much of the evidence is not necessary to support life on earth. So if God had done that, then He would have created fake evidence of age. Did God present to us evidence of the age of the earth that appears to contradict His word so that He could test our faith, or did God present to us good evidence of His true eternal power so that we would have good reason to believe His word? This message favors the second choice, which is why it began with a quotation of Romans 1:20, but the reader is free to make the choice.

 

Physical Evidence of Life Origin 

 

In this message, discussion about the origin of life and evolution are in the first section of the main message about Sight of the Lord Creation.

 

And more information is in a subtopic message called The Trouble with Evolution.

 

Grace and peace to you in the search for truth

From your brother in Christ, Ralph Griffin, September 16, 2023

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