Biblegems
#245
Image Credit: NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team
Question: According to NASA, the Veil Nebula
is the debris of a supernova that occurred 8,000 years ago. How does this fit
in the Genesis portrayal of a universe created in six days only thousands of
years ago?
According
to Genesis, stars and galaxies came into existence at once by God’s command on
day four of creation (Gen. 1:14-19).
Furthermore,
the genealogical record between Adam (created day six, year one) and Abraham (c.
2150 B.C.) covers approximately 2,000 years. That places creation week at
roughly 4,000 B.C. —only 6,000+ years ago.
Current
scientific theory proposes that the Veil Nebula is the vast debris field of a blue
star once twenty times larger than our sun that grew old and eventually
exploded. According to NASA—
“The fast-moving blast wave from the
ancient explosion is plowing into a wall of cool, denser interstellar gas,
emitting light. The nebula lies along the edge of a large bubble of low-density
gas that was blown into space by the dying star prior to its self-detonation.”[i]
The
estimated explosion date?
“The Veil Nebula arches into graceful
loops over a large region in Cygnus. Earlier estimates of its age were in the
tens of thousands of years. In 2001, however, Sky & Telescope (2/2001) reported a surprise. By
comparing Hubble views with photographs taken in 1953, astronomers recalculated
its age at 5,000 years.”
That fits
well within the Genesis time frame of creation. But what about the billions of
years required for the formation of stars out of the Big Bang before a blue
star eventually turns supernova?
The
belief that stars are billions of years old is based on the assumption that stars take a certain
amount of time to form. What evidence is this assumption built upon?
None.
In fact, this
assumption is based upon one more assumption:
that the processes we see at work in nature now
have always been the same and do not
change. The Bible predicted that this Uniformitarian Principle would drive
people in the Last Days to ridicule those who trust God’s revelation in the
Scriptures:
2Pet. 3:3 First
of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing
and following their own evil desires. 4
They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he
promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since
the beginning of creation.” 5
But they deliberately forget that long
ago by God’s word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and
by water.
When we
see a thirty year-old man, we assume (logically) that he has been alive for
thirty years. However, the first man (Adam) was created as a mature adult,
perhaps the equivalent age of approximately thirty years old. To assume he had
been alive for thirty years would be false. In the same way, to assume stars and galaxies are billions
of years old because they appear
(from our very limited perspective) to be in various stages of ages-long
development would also be a false
assumption.
Secular
scientific theorizing must assume natural forces of cause and effect without
any purpose or design. In contrast, the God of creation intentionally reveals
that every aspect of the universe exists by design…
Psa. 147:4 He
determines the number of the stars
and
calls them each by name.
…and for
His purposes:
Col.
1:16 For by him all things were created: things in
heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers
or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.
