New Star Formation And Biblical Creation

 Biblegems # 277

Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, Aloisi, Ford

Question: How does the evidence of new star formation hundreds of light years from earth fit in with the young universe scenario of biblical creation?

Recently, an image from the Hubble telescope was presented to the public of—

 “a dark cloud (Lupus 3) where new stars are forming along with a cluster of brilliant stars that have already emerged from their dusty stellar nursery …about 600 light-years from Earth”[i]

Astronomers then presented as fact what is only theory, that these “new” stars were actually born 600 light years ago because it took that long for the light from their birth to travel across space to earth where we could see it.

A literal interpretation of creation in Genesis has all the stars of the universe brought into existence and sent virtually instantaneously into their positions in space relative to earth in the one twenty-four hour period of day four, thousands (not billions) of years ago.

How then can we see light that has travelled hundreds of light years from “newborn” stars to earth if the universe is only thousands of years old? Visible starlight is likely the “light trail” left behind as God flung the stars out from a geographic center in space (i.e., “the deep” — Gen. 1:1-2).

The very concept of “new” star formation is based on the assumption that the universe is billions—not thousands—of years old. That assumption is based upon another assumption: that the speed of light is a universal constant—an unalterable “law” of physics.  Based upon those two assumptions, the speed of light is used as a measuring stick to go backwards in time to determine how long it took for starlight from individual stars and galaxies to come into existence from the theorized Big Bang.

The Big Bang itself is a theory based upon the assumption that the universe is billions of years old, which is built on the assumption that the speed of light as a universal constant. That is the definition of circular reasoning, no matter how convincing the complicated math required to calculate the age of stars.

So when we read an article that states—

“…the faint irregular galaxy NGC 3738…about 12 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Ursa Major (The Great Bear)…is undergoing a violent episode of star formation, converting huge clouds of hydrogen gas — which glow red in the image — into new stars.”[ii]

—we need to keep in mind that nobody is actually watching stars being formed. No one is even watching the birth of stars 12 million light years ago. That is simply an interpretation of data filtered through a whirlpool of circular assumptions.

In contrast to complex, theoretical mathematics and computer algorithms based upon un-provable assumptions, the Creator of the stars has told us how He did it, when He did it and why He did it.

         Ps. 33:6  By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth.

If God chose to create stars in various stages of “maturity,” even as He created mature seed-bearing trees, which then produced more seed-bearing trees (Gen. 1:11), it all points back to Him:

         Ps. 19:1  The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

        

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[i] (ESO/F. Comeron) Space.com 1/16/13

[ii] Space.com 11/6/12