How old is the Universe?
by Donald E. Hester
on Monday, 22 December 2008
Science
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Donald E. Hester
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How old is the Universe? My questions in response are; whose clock do you use, how fast are you traveling, how fast is the universe expanding, from what vantage point and is the speed of light constant?
Some Christians assume the creation account was a metaphor or that each day was a long age. In his book, 'The language of God' Francis S. Collins accepts evolution as a process and as such a Universe that is 13 billion years old. However, his studies as director of the Human genome project lead him to conclude that there must have been a Creator and that there is no other explanation for the complexity of DNA. In his interpretation, he has no problem with an old Universe.
On the other hand we have Christians who support the young universe and use scientific facts to back them up. They assume the creation account literally as 6, 24 hour periods. Dr. Don DeYoung in his book, 'Thousands not Billions' has a number of facts that he believes prove a young universe. He covers Radioisotope dating, helium retention in zircon crystals, radiohalos in granite and accelerated nuclear decay.
Christians are on both side of the fence on this topic. The young universe crowd feels the old universe supporters are compromising and question their belief. Meanwhile, the old universe supporters think the young universe folks are unscientific and backwards. I cannot say that I am not dogmatic about the age of the universe for a number of reasons. Here are a number of factors I considered. Consider each of these factors carefully and perhaps you will see that the age of the universe might be a moot question and a needless division.
1. Time is relative. That’s right folks, time as you know it is dependent upon your speed compared to the speed of light. The closer to the speed of light you travel the slower time elapses for you. Compared to others who are gonging slower than you are time is traveling faster for them. That means at different speeds in the universe time travels at different rates.
Here is another goofy or strange tidbit. If a person were to reach the event horizon of a black hole, time would seem to have stopped for them. They would seem to be frozen in time. Some theorize that passing the event horizon would make time travel backwards for them. I don’t know about that but I can't wait until someone tries to test that theory.
2. The expansion of the Universe after the big bang affects time. That means the space-time continuum is being stretched. Everyone accepts that the physical part of the universe is being stretch but forget it is the space-time continuum and thus time would also be stretched. Now get this, stretching of space affects time, as space stretches it distorts time a different rates dependent upon your location. Dr. Gerald Schroeder calculated the ratio of dilation of time at .015 as observed from point of origin of the universe. According to this ratio if you were an observer at the location where the big bang started you would have experience 6 days at that location while we would experience almost 13 billion at our location.
3. The decay of C. C is the equation notation for the speed of light, to say that C is decaying is to say the speed of light is slowing. Remember time is based on our speed relative to the speed of light. If the speed of light were slowing, it would alter our perception of time. This is the most sacrilegious concept to scientists today. They have built all of their models in physics around the constancy of C. To contemplate the possibility that C is not constant is heresy and they are liable to burn you at the stake for even mentioning it. Dr. Barry Setterfield has been a pioneer in this field. He is not the only scientist other non-religious scientists hold this position as well. However, simply because he is an outspoken supporter of the Bible, he and the theory are ridiculed.
The same Physicists who complain about mathematical errors of Gerald Schroeder and Barry Setterfield have no problem using imaginary numbers for calculations in their theories. Steven Hawkins uses imaginary numbers for some of his theories and he is hailed as a genus. This hypocrisy is coming from the open-minded crowd.
The expansion of the universe might be the reason the speed of light is slowing. Time dilation is the refraction or bending of time. It is a scientifically accepted part of the physics that governs our Universe. As the Universe aged, the free space permittivity and permeability increased and C decreased - but the velocity of gravity may not be tied to the permittivity and permeability of free space! The stretching of space affects the speed of light and distorts time.
4. Whose clock do we use? What do we use to measure time? Is it atomic time or ordinary dynamic time? Is it based on the rotation of the earth? What if the earth did not rotate once every 24 hours? What if it was once every 24 days?
Together these points raise enough of a question for me that I don’t feel comfortable being dogmatic about the age on the Universe. This is not an essential part of the Christian faith and thus it is a debatable topic. What is the age of the universe? It depends on where you are and it is relative.
[Note: A number of scientific facts are used in my article, relativity of time, time dilation, expansion of the universe, the theories I wrote about are the applications of those facts to the age of the Universe.]