The Young Sun
As Bible believers, we are always faced with the question of time. The ‘molecules to men’ model of Darwinian evolution requires an enormous amount of time to be factored into the equation. It is not much more than the ‘magic ingredient’ in the Theory of Evolution or the concept that given enough time, anything is possible.
What we see in the fossil record is a good indication of what has happened in the past. The fact that almost every life form appears abruptly in the fossil record, fully formed, does not support the hypothesis of change over time which is the basic tenant of the Theory of Evolution by their own definition.
At Creation Studies Institute we believe the biblical revelation noted in Genesis is referring to literal 24-hour days. It indicates that God spoke the universe into existence and that is the consistent teaching of the Hebrew Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments, Gen. 1:1, John 1:1; Col. 1:15-20.
What we see in the biblical account of Creation is that the universe was created mature. Adam and Eve were adults when created. The light was created before the sun, moon and stars. The plant kingdom and the animal kingdom were all created in a state of maturity and then genetically pre-programmed to reproduce ‘according to their kinds’.
Carbon dating has some degree of accuracy, however, long ages derived from some of the radiometric dating methods, beyond thousands of years, are seriously flawed. Aside from that, there are many young age chronometers (natural evidence of a young earth/universe) like the saline content of the oceans and the earth’s magnetic field, etc. Some of them are covered in the books mentioned below. I suggest that you purchase some scholarly works on this subject so that you might be better informed.
The Sun—the Glory of God
As Genesis 1:16 says, the sun was made on the fourth day of creation as the “greater light to rule the day.” When it first appears on the horizon to start a new day, have you ever thought of a bridegroom coming out of his chambers?
Do you see the sky as a tabernacle (or temple) in which the sun’s glory is displayed as it rises and sets?
The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.
In them, He has set a tabernacle for the sun, which is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, and rejoicing like a strong man to run his race. Its rising is from one end of heaven, and its circuit to the other end, and there is nothing hidden from its heat.
The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul; The testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple; Psalm 19:1-7, NKJV
As the psalmist eloquently states, God’s glory is revealed in the heavens and the nighttime skies reveal His majesty. The Almighty created the stars (Genesis 1:15), named and numbered them (Psalm 147:4) and, like a Good Shepherd, assures us that not even one of them is missing (Isaiah 40:26). These distant specks of light make us contemplate the unimaginably vast expanses of space they occupy and force us to acknowledge our Creator’s lordship and awesome power!
This passage from God’s Word also likens the sun’s glory to Jesus Christ, the Light of the world, the Church’s Bridegroom and He who dwells in the “tabernacle” of the highest heaven. As the sun’s light drives away the blackness of night and transverses the sky, it symbolizes God’s wisdom in saving us from the darkness of our sins and His amazing provision for us. One of the trillions and trillions of stars in the universe that give us a glimpse of God’s glory and power—especially on a clear night and away from city lights—our sun is indeed a very special star that the Lord made that literally makes our existence possible.
The Sun—a Gift From God
From our tiny vantage point on the earth, there is no heavenly body more glorious than the sun—or more necessary for life. For starters, the sun is reliable. It rises and sets in a predictable pattern and never deviates from its established course. The same laws that govern the sun and its motions also keep the earth rotating on its axis—and for that matter, are responsible for all the order in the universe.
Sir Isaac Newton, one of the most influential people in human history and scientific genius of all time, recognized the origin of this order, stating: “This most beautiful system of sun, planets, and comets could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful being.” All the celestial objects, including the sun, are following perfect laws that only an almighty Lawmaker could devise, as we witness every day as the sun rises and sets. No wonder the psalmist concludes in Psalm 19:7, “The law of the LORD is perfect, converting the soul; the testimony of the LORD is sure, making wise the simple.”
Life is precious and extremely complex. According to the co-discover of DNA and Noble Prize winner Sir Francis Crick, the origin of life is far more complicated than previously thought, concluding it is, “…almost a miracle, so many are the conditions which would have had to been satisfied to get going.” While our schools continue to teach that life evolved out of a “primordial soup,” in reality, evolutionists have no valid explanation for how life began or how conditions required for its existence could happen naturally. Darwinian evolution falls drastically short, also, when it comes to explaining the vital sun-earth relationship that is unique in the universe and which makes life on our planet possible. However, many studies have carefully considered the fragile conditions life requires, such as ideal temperature, the right chemical composition of the atmosphere, etc.—a list of 20 essential factors in all. When statistically taken together, the likelihood of all 20 of these necessary life conditions occurring in the universe by chance is a minuscule one in one-thousandth of one trillionth or 1/1,000,000,000,000,000. Let’s look at a few of them, especially as they relate to the sun.
Life requires the correct amount of heat to exist, which the harmonious physical relationship between the sun and earth just “happens” to provide. The sun is a heat-radiating body that uses the simplest and lightest of elements—hydrogen—for fuel, fusing its atoms together to produce nuclear reactions. Such atomic fusion requires extremely high temperatures and great pressure. However, with a core temperature of some 27.6 million degrees Fahrenheit and atmospheric pressure 250 billion times that of Earth, the sun easily qualifies. In turn, the nuclear reactions generated release tremendous amounts of energy and send light trillions of miles into the universe. It’s the same form of energy that lights the stars we see at night.
Furthermore, the sun produces 386 billion, billion megawatts of energy each second, or 6.4 billion Horse Power (HP). To illustrate this, assuming a family car averages 200 HP if you totaled up all the energy sources on the earth—all the cars, dams, power plants, nuclear weapons, hurricanes, tornados and volcanoes, and every other energy source on planet earth since the beginning of time, it would be less than the energy our sun produces in one second! However, of all that energy moving out into space, the Earth captures only a small percentage of it (0.0000000462 of 1 percent). But this very tiny percentage, no more and no less, is “somehow” exactly the right amount the earth needs to maintain the average temperatures that support all forms of life. Psalm 19:6 hints at this fact by noting that the sun’s effects are felt by all of earth’s inhabitants in stating, “And there is nothing hidden from its heat.”
Our sun also possesses the exact massive structure needed to sustain life on Earth. While just a medium-sized star, it amazingly ranks in the top ten percentile for density. With a surface temperature of 11,000 degrees F, it actively sends solar flares out that can affect us here on Earth 93 million miles away. “Coincidently,” the earth has an iron core that circulates and produces a magnetic field that protects us from the sun’s dangerous radiation. While an extremely efficient type of power, the downside of nuclear energy is that it produces gamma rays and x-rays, which are harmful to living systems. If the sun were a more active star, these rays would penetrate the protective layer of the magnetic field. It would almost appear as if the sun’s activity level and Earth’s magnetic field were designed to work together!
The earth’s atmosphere further contains the correct chemical composition to further diffuse the negative effects of the sun’s radiation. And due its great density (or mass), the sun’s gravity is also strong enough to hold on to just the right number of planets, including the giants like Jupiter and Saturn on the outer edges of our solar system, which protect and shield the earth from meteorite impacts. Additionally, at an average distance of 93 million miles away from the sun, our planet is conveniently located in “the habitable zone” for life to survive in our solar system.
If the earth were further away from the sun, polar ice caps would engulf it, and if it were any closer, everything would burn up. There would be no plants and no oxygen/carbon dioxide (O2/CO2) cycle, which would ultimately result in a lifeless planet like our neighbors, Mars and Venus. A related example of the unbelievable sun-earth harmony is the process of photosynthesis in green plants. Life on our planet depends on vegetation and the O2/CO2 cycle (animals breathe oxygen/plants “breathe” carbon dioxide) for its existence. “Surprisingly,” the sun contains the specific radiation wavelength needed to activate photosynthesis! The sun also provides the necessary amount of energy to evaporate water and keep the hydrological cycle operating, along with many other life cycles, so that the resources that living organisms need are continually renewed. It has been said that the earth has the perfect surface to support life, but without the sun’s delicate interaction, it would be void and desolate. One can only logically conclude that the sun-earth relationship is the work of an amazingly wise and loving Creator. “For thus says the LORD, Who created the heavens, Who is God, Who formed the earth and made it, Who has established it, Who did not create it in vain, Who formed it to be inhabited: “ I am the LORD, and there is no other.’” Isaiah 45:18, NKJV
A Young Sun
The evolutionary “Big Bang” theory proposes that dust particles in space coalesced to form galaxies, stars, planets, and other celestial objects and that 4.5 billion of years ago the beginnings of our sun (a “proto-sun”) formed out of a large gas cloud. The leftover gas from the cloud flattened into a disc, and then little particles coalesced, got bigger and bigger, and developed into planet-like clumps that eventually became the planets of our solar system. Unfortunately for Big Bang proponents, this “common origin” theory of our solar system directly conflicts with known facts about the planets, including their vastly differing compositions, rotations, distances between them, densities, magnetic fields, etc. The situation is summarized by physicist Lambert Dolphin, who states, “Theories for the origin of our solar system have come and gone, yet even today no satisfactory model exists that both explains all the facts and is consistent with the known laws of physics.”
In fact, physical laws inform us that far more than gravity is required to form a star, planet, or any other heavenly body out of particles in a giant gas cloud. Simple physics tells us that (kinetic) energy tends to disperse particles in a gas cloud or cause them to move away from each other, not bring them together. In other words, gas clouds naturally expand rather than condense. It is actually preposterous—and defies the laws of science—to believe that without an overwhelming outside force, gas can contract to the point where nuclear fusion can take place, as in our sun. As a matter of fact, no one has ever observed a star being formed. As Harvard astrophysicist, Abraham Loeb put it, “The truth is that we don’t understand star formation at a fundamental level.”
Contrary to the figure of 4.5 billion years, recent studies provide strong evidence for a young sun. Keith Davies in an article entitled, “Evidences for a Young Sun” from the Institute for Creation Research (http://www.icr.org/article/evidence-for-young-sun) reports on a study by Russian astronomers employing measurements of star oscillations used to predict the size of their cores (if the oscillating period is long, the core is young and not as big, as the core enlarges with time). To the Russian scientist’s surprise, they found our sun’s oscillation period longer, indicating a younger age with a relatively undeveloped core.
Another problem cited by the Russian team dealt with the sun’s neutrino content. Along with nuclear energy, hydrogen atoms that fuse in the sun produce neutrino particles (neutral particles that have close to zero mass). If the sun is old, many neutrinos should be observed. However, our sun was found to possess unexpectedly low neutrino levels, which results in the correspondingly “low” temperature of its core (compared to other stars). So, the lack of neutrinos also points to a young sun. In addition, as a star gets older, it gets hotter and more reactive, and its beryllium and lithium begin to disappear. So the fewer of these elements it possesses, the older it is. Scientists have discovered that our sun has hardly lost its beryllium and lithium, once again indicating a “youthful” star. According to this data, the old model of 4.5 billion years for the sun’s age is no longer valid, and its birthday needs to be revised way downward.
As you can see, the sun is no mistake. It came from the creative hands of a loving, benevolent Creator, not from some random cosmic event or Big Bang explosion
