A heated debate has been raging over the question "how old is the universe?" Many Young-Earth Creationists insist that the universe is around 6000 years old. The purpose of this post is to demonstrate that either the universe must be much older than 6000 years, or God is going out of his way to deceive us into thinking that it is much older than 6000 years.
According to SolStation.com, "In February 1987, light from a supernova explosion more than 179,000 light-years (ly) away finally reached the Solar System." http://www.solstation.com/x-objects/sn1987a.htm (you will have to scroll down to find the specific star I am talking about, but there are plenty of examples of stars like this one to be found on various astronomy sites)
A supernova occurs when a star explodes. When a star explodes, light is given off. This light travels at the speed of light. The distance that light covers in one year is called a light year. If it took 179,000 light years for the light to reach us, then the star must have existed at least 179,000 years ago. Therefore, the universe is at least 179,000 years old (the universe is actually older than this, but right now let's limit our focus on this one supernova).
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| Figure 1: Starlight traveling from a supernova to Earth |
The major objection to the starlight in transit argument is that the universe was created with age. Adam and Eve were created adults, after all. Not to mention all the animals and plants- so why not the universe?
This is why not: God would be creating light from a supernova that never existed, and this would be very deceptive! God would be creating a scenario in which any reasonable observer would say, "well gosh darn, it sure looks like there was a supernova out there 179,000 years ago."
Here is a version of the previous diagram in which the universe has only existed for 6000 years:
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| Figure 2: Light coming from nowhere, and hitting the earth |
Take note that in Figure 2, the light is coming from nowhere- the supernova never existed. This means that God would have had to create the appearance of a supernova (in the form of light) hurtling through space towards us, when in fact there had never been such a supernova. Since I am personally of the opinion that God is not deceptive, I must conclude that the universe is much, much, much older than 6000 years.
I hope that this post has demonstrated one of two things: Either the universe is much older than 6000 years, or if not, God made the universe in such a way that any rational observer would conclude that the universe is much older than 6000 years. If the latter is true, it would imply that God purposefully deceived us into thinking that the universe is much older than 6000 years.
Conclusion:
Unless God is deceptive, the universe is much older than 6000 years.
Figure 3: Supernova (Or elaborate ruse)
