A New Creationist Cosmology: In No Time at All Part 3
by Larry Vardiman, Ph.D., & D. Russell Humphreys, Ph.D. *
This article is the last in a series offering an explanation
A New Creationist Cosmology: In No Time at All Part 3
by Larry Vardiman, Ph.D., & D. Russell Humphreys, Ph.D. *
This article is the last in a series offering an explanation for how distant starlight could be visible from an earth that is only thousands of years old. Drs. Vardiman and Humphreys have contributed their considerable scientific expertise in presenting a creationist cosmology that seems to resolve this question. To read the entire series, visit www.icr.org.
— Lawrence Ford, Executive Editor
In the November 2010 and January 2011 issues of Acts & Facts, Dr. Russell Humphreys and I presented the basics of his new creationist cosmology for explaining how stars can be seen many millions of light years away if only a few thousand years of time have passed since they were created.1, 2
In this third article we will describe the implications of Humphreys’ cosmology in more detail using a composite figure that illustrates the effects of stretching the heavens on earth time, cosmic time, and the location in space. We will also discuss a possible second time-dilation episode associated with the Genesis Flood and some independent evidence for Humphreys’ model.
The Effect of Stretching the Heavens
Figure 1 shows a plot of earth time and cosmic time versus distance from earth. Earth time in thousands of years is shown on the vertical axis to the left side of the diagram and cosmic time in billions of years to the right side. Cosmic time is defined as the time it takes light to travel to earth without any stretching of space or other cosmological adjustments. The distance through space is given in light years. (A light year is equivalent to the distance light travels in one year at 186,000 miles/second, or about 5.87 x 1012 miles.) Light takes only about eight minutes to travel from the sun to earth, but over four light years to travel from the nearest star (Alpha Centauri). The farthest object in space observed by the Hubble telescope is estimated to be about 13 billion light years away and, consequently, the cosmic time for its light to reach earth would be about 13 billion years. However, earth time could be considerably less, according to Humphreys’ model.
Ignoring the upper part of Figure 1 for the moment, the large triangular area in the center of the diagram shows the timeless zone that developed during the time that God created the galaxies and stretched space outward. It would be helpful for the reader to review the portion of the second article in January 2011 where we suggested that God designed or adjusted three factors that affected the timeless zone so that the expansion speed of the timeless zone surface was equal exactly to the speed of light. The other two factors were made constant to get a constant speed for the expansion of the timeless zone. For an expansion rate equal to the speed of light, the timeless zone would follow closely behind the wave of galaxy creation, also proceeding outward at the speed of light. As the zone reached and engulfed each new galaxy, time stopped for them. The trace of the timeless zone shown in Figure 1 would move from the lower left corner of the diagram (0, 0) [cosmic time] upward to the right center of the diagram (15, 15) [cosmic time].
When the wave of creation stopped, say at the location of the waters above, suppose that God now increased the tension, and the critical potential line (shown in Figure 3 of the second article) moved downward. As it did so, the radius of the sphere of timelessness decreased. Again, let’s imagine that God set the values of the three factors to cause the timeless zone to contract at the speed of light. As each galaxy emerged from the receding timeless zone, it resumed emitting light, some of which would shine inward toward the center. Because the timeless sphere was contracting at the speed of light, the inbound light would follow right behind the sphere as it shrank.
When the sphere reached zero radius and disappeared, the earth emerged from the timeless zone, and immediately the light that had been following the sphere reached earth, even light that started billions of light years away. The stretching of the fabric of space had been occurring continuously all along the light trajectory, thus red-shifting the light wavelengths. The trace for the timeless zone during this phase of the process moved from the right center of the diagram (15, 15) [cosmic time] to the upper left corner (0, 30) [cosmic time]. Within the timeless zone on earth during Day Four of creation, the galaxies in space would have been created and wound up, large amounts of radioactive decay would have occurred, and light would have traveled long distances from the far reaches of space. On earth, time was at a standstill during this process.
A Second Time-Dilation Episode during the Genesis Flood
As Humphreys has mentioned in several publications,3, 4 two Bible verses led him to the conclusion that there was a second space-stretching and time-dilation episode sometime during the year of the Genesis Flood. One of the verses is Psalm 18:9: “He bowed the heavens also, and came down: and darkness was under his feet.”
The other verse is 2 Samuel 22:10. It is identical, as the whole chapter is nearly identical to all of Psalm 18. The repetition suggests that the psa