The Trap of Naturalist Nomenclature

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Last Updated on Wednesday, 30 November -0001 00:00

The problem of a young universe while distant stars may be billions of light-years away hinges on the fact that we are trying to measure pre-fall conditions with post-fall science. We allow ourselves to be limited by Lyell's concept, "The present is the key to the past," when we use naturalist nomenclature that is tied to postfall conditions such as describing a so-called geological column in terms of periods rather than ecological zones, and describing astronomical distances in terms of light-years rather than traditionally standard units of measurement.

The problem of large astronomical distances existing in a young universe becomes a nonproblem if one is willing to accept the fact that God "spake, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast." (Psalm 33.9) When God said, "Let there be light," (Genesis 1:3) there suddenly was light throughout the entire, prefall universe, light which had an astronomically fast speed that did not start slowing down until after the fall when God placed His curse on the entire creation as the promised consequence of Adam's sin (Genesis 2:17; 3:17 and Romans 8:18-23), and degenerative changes set in to affect all natural processes.

The light-year, a measure of distance, is about as useful as a rubber ruler. Its length depends upon the speed of light: the faster the speed of light, the longer the light-year; the slower the speed of light, the shorter the light-year. (Shades of Relativity!) Referring to the work of Trevor Norman and Barry Setterfield, M. E. J. Gheury de Bray, and V. S. Troitskii, Walt Brown demonstrates that the speed of light has slowed down asymptotically (Brown, 2001, pp. 232, 236); hence it could have been infinitely faster when God spoke into existence. Thus, the light-year could have been infinitely longer, requiring fewer of them to measure the distance between us and the outer reaches of the universe—even as few of them as 6,000, which agrees with Biblical chronology.

We have been trapped into assuming that the speed of light is fixed and, thus, that the light-year is a fixed measure of distance, the distance that light travels in a year at today's speed, long after the fall. Instead, the light-year is nothing more than a useless, variable measure of distance, employed by naturalists to mislead us into questioning the scientific accuracy of Scripture. What a wily way for Satan to undermine the Christian Faith! Let us, therefore, return to traditionally standard, truly fixed units to measure distances like miles (Mi), or kilometers (Km), or astronomical units (AU), even if we have to add x10 to the nth power to the figure.

Reference

Brown, Walter T., Jr., 2001.

In the Beginning: Compelling Evidence for Creation and the Flood. Center for Scientific Creation, 5612 N. 20th Place, Phoenix, AZ 85016.