Age of the earth
101 evidences for a young age of the earth and the universe
by Don Batten
Published: 4 June 2009(GMT+10)
There are many categories of evidence for the age of the earth and the cosmos that indicate they are
much younger than is generally asserted today.
Can science prove the age of the earth?
No scientific method can prove the age of the earth and the universe, and
that includes the ones we have listed here. Although age indicators are called “clocks”
they aren’t, because all ages result from calculations that necessarily involve
making assumptions about the past. Always the starting time of the “clock”
has to be assumed as well as the way in which the speed of the clock has varied
over time. Further, it has to be assumed that the clock was never disturbed.
There is no independent natural clock against which those assumptions can be tested.
For example, the amount of cratering on the moon, based on currently observed cratering
rates, would suggest that the moon is quite old. However, to draw this conclusion
we have to assume that the rate of cratering has been the same in the past as it
is now. And there are now good reasons for thinking that it might have been quite
intense in the past, in which case the craters do not indicate an old age at all
(see below).
No scientific method can prove the age of the earth or the universe, and
that includes the ones we have listed here.
Ages of millions of years are all calculated by assuming the rates of change of
processes in the past were the same as we observe today—called the principle
of uniformitarianism. If the age calculated from such assumptions disagrees with
what they think the age should be, they conclude that their assumptions did not
apply in this case, and adjust them accordingly. If the calculated result gives
an acceptable age, the investigators publish it.
Examples of young ages listed here are also obtained by applying the same
principle of uniformitarianism. Long-age proponents will dismiss this sort of evidence
for a young age of the earth by arguing that the assumptions about the past do not apply in
these cases. In other words, age is not really a matter of scientific observation
but an argument about our assumptions about the unobserved past.
The assumptions behind the evidences presented here cannot be proved, but the fact
that such a wide range of different phenomena all suggest much younger
ages than are currently generally accepted, provides a strong case for questioning
those accepted ages (about 14 billion years for the universe and 4.5 billion years
for the solar system).
Also, a number of the evidences, rather than giving any estimate of age, challenge
the assumption of slow-and-gradual uniformitarianism, upon which all deep-time dating
methods depend.
When the evolutionists throw up some new challenge to the Bible’s timeline,
don’t fret over it. Sooner or later that supposed evidence will be turned
on its head and will even be added to this list of evidences for a young age of the earth.
Many of these indicators for younger ages were discovered when creationist scientists
started researching things that were supposed to “prove” long ages.
The lesson here is clear: when the evolutionists throw up some new challenge to
the Bible’s timeline, don’t fret over it. Sooner or later that supposed
evidence will be turned on its head and will even be added to this list of evidences
for a younger age of the earth. On the other hand, some of the evidences listed here might
turn out to be ill-founded with further research and will need to be modified. Such
is the nature of science, especially historical science, because we cannot do experiments
on past events (see “It’s not
science”).
Science is based on observation, and the only reliable means of telling the age
of anything is by the testimony of a reliable witness who observed the events. The
Bible claims to be the communication of the only One who witnessed the events of
Creation: the Creator himself. As such, the Bible is the only reliable means of
knowing the age of the earth and the cosmos. See The
Universe’s Birth Certificate and
Biblical chronogenealogies (technical).
In the end the Bible will stand vindicated and those who deny its testimony will
be confounded. That same Bible also tells us of God’s judgment on those who
reject his right to rule over them. But it also tells us of his willingness to forgive
us for our rebellious behaviour. The coming of Jesus Christ, who was intimately
involved in the creation process at the beginning (John 1:1–3), into the world, has made this possible
(see Good news).
Biological evidence for a young age of the earth
Image: Dr Mary Schweitzer
The finding of pliable blood vessels, blood cells and proteins in dinosaur bone
is consistent with an age of thousands of years for the fossils, not the 65+ million
years claimed by the paleontologists.
- DNA in “ancient” fossils.
DNA extracted from bacteria that are supposed to be 425 million years old brings
into question that age, because DNA could not last more than thousands of years.
- Lazarus bacteria—bacteria revived
from salt inclusions supposedly 250 million years old, suggest the salt is not millions
of years old.
- The decay in the human genome due to multiple slightly deleterious mutations each
generation is consistent with an origin several thousand years ago. Sanford, J.,
Genetic entropy and the mystery of the genome, Ivan Press, 2005; see review of the book and the interview
with the author in Creation 30(4):45–47,September
2008. This has been confirmed by realistic modelling of population genetics, which
shows that genomes are young, in the order of thousands of years. See Sanford, J.,
Baumgardner, J., Brewer, W., Gibson, P. and Remine, W.,
Mendel’s Accountant: A biologically realistic forward-time population genetics
program, SCPE 8(2):147–165, 2007.
- The data for “mitochondrial Eve”
are consistent with a common origin of all humans several thousand years ago.
- Very limited variation in the DNA sequence on the human
Y-chromosome around the world is consistent with a recent origin of mankind,
thousands not millions of years.
- Many fossil bones “dated” at many millions of years old are hardly mineralized,
if at all. This contradicts the widely believed old age of the earth. See, for example, Dinosaur bones
just how old are they really?
- Dinosaur blood cells,
blood vessels, proteins (hemoglobin,
osteocalcin,
collagen) are not consistent with their supposed age, but make more sense
if the remains are young.
- Lack of 50:50 racemization of amino acids
in fossils “dated” at millions of years old, whereas complete racemization
would occur in thousands of years.
- Living fossils—jellyfish, graptolites,
coelacanth, stromatolites, Wollemi pine and hundreds more. That many hundreds of
species could remain so unchanged, for even up to billions of years in the case
of stromatolites, speaks against the millions and billions of years being real.
- Discontinuous fossil sequences. E.g.
Coelacanth, Wollemi pine and
various “index” fossils, which are present in supposedly ancient strata,
missing in strata representing many millions of years since, but still living today.
Such discontinuities speak against the interpretation of the rock formations as
vast geological ages—how could Coelacanths have avoided being fossilized for
65 million years, for example? See The “Lazarus
effect”: rodent “resurrection”!
- The ages of the world’s oldest living
organisms, trees, are consistent with an age of the earth of thousands
of years.
Geological evidence for a young age of the earth
Photo by Don Batten
Radical folding at Eastern Beach, near Auckland in New Zealand, indicates that the
sediments were soft and pliable when folded, inconsistent with a long time for their
formation. Such folding can be seen world-wide and is consistent with a young age of the earth.
- Lack of plant fossils in many formations
containing abundant animal / herbivore fossils. E.g., the Morrison Formation
(Jurassic) in Montana. See Origins 21(1):51–56,
1994. Also the Coconino sandstone in the Grand Canyon has many track-ways (animals),
but is almost devoid of plants. Implication: these rocks are not ecosystems
of an “era” buried in situ over eons of time as evolutionists
claim. The evidence is more consistent with catastrophic transport then burial during
the massive global Flood of Noah’s day. This eliminates supposed evidence
for millions of years.
- Thick, tightly bent strata without sign of melting or fracturing. E.g. the Kaibab upwarp in Grand Canyon indicates
rapid folding before the sediments had time to solidify (the sand grains were not
elongated under stress as would be expected if the rock had hardened). This wipes
out hundreds of millions of years of time and is consistent with extremely rapid
formation during the biblical Flood. See
Warped earth.
- Polystrate fossils—tree trunks in coal (Auracaria spp. king billy
pines, celery top pines, in southern hemisphere
coal). There are also polystrate tree trunks in the
Yellowstone fossilized forests and
Joggins, Nova Scotia and in many other places. Polystrate fossilized
lycopod trunks occur in northern hemisphere
coal, again indicating rapid burial / formation of the organic material
that became coal.
- Experiments show that with conditions mimicking natural forces,
coal forms quickly; in weeks for brown coal to months for black coal. It does
not need millions of years. Furthermore, long time periods could be an impediment
to coal formation because of the increased likelihood of the permineralization of
the wood, which would hinder coalification.
- Experiments show that with conditions mimicking natural forces,
oil forms quickly; it does not need millions of years, consistent with an age
of thousands of years.
- Experiments show that with conditions mimicking natural forces,
opals form quickly, in a matter of weeks, not millions of years, as had been
claimed.
- Evidence for rapid, catastrophic formation
of coal beds speaks against the hundreds of millions of years normally claimed
for this, including Z-shaped seams that point to a single depositional event producing
these layers.
- Evidence for rapid petrifaction of wood
speaks against the need for long periods of time and is consistent with an age of
thousands of years.
- Clastic dykes and pipes (intrusion of sediment through overlying sedimentary rock)
show that the overlying rock strata were still soft when it happened. This drastically
compresses the time scale for the deposition of the penetrated rock strata. See,
Walker, T., Fluidisation pipes: Evidence
of large-scale watery catastrophe, Journal of Creation (TJ) 14(3):8–9,
2000.
- Para(pseudo)conformities—where one rock stratum
sits on top of another rock stratum but with supposedly millions of years of geological
time missing, yet the contact plane lacks any significant erosion; that is, it is
a “flat gap”. E.g. Coconino sandstone / Hermit shale in the Grand Canyon
(supposedly a 10 million year gap in time). The thick Schnebly Hill Formation (sandstone)
lies between the Coconino and Hermit in central Arizona. See Austin, S.A.,
Grand Canyon, monument to catastrophe, ICR, Santee, CA, USA, 1994 and Snelling,
A., The case of the “missing”
geologic time, Creation 14(3):31–35, 1992.
- The presence of ephemeral markings (raindrop marks, ripple marks, animal tracks)
at the boundaries of paraconformities show that the upper rock layer has been deposited
immediately after the lower one, eliminating many millions of “gap”
time. See references in Para(pseudo)conformities.
- Inter-tonguing of adjacent strata that are supposedly separated by millions of years
also eliminates many millions of years of supposed geologic time.
The case of the “missing” geologic time; Mississippian and Cambrian
strata interbedding: 200 million years hiatus in question, CRSQ 23(4):160–167.
- The lack of bioturbation (worm holes,
root growth) at paraconformities (flat gaps) reinforces the lack of time involved
where evolutionary geologists insert many millions of years to force the rocks to
conform with the “given” timescale of billions of years.
- The almost complete lack of clearly recognizable soil layers anywhere in the geologic
column. Geologists do claim to have found lots of “fossil” soils (paleosols),
but these are quite different to soils today, lacking the features that characterize
soil horizons; features that are used in classifying different soils. Every one
that has been investigated thoroughly proves to lack the characteristics of proper
soil. If “deep time” were correct, with hundreds of millions of years
of abundant life on the earth, there should have been ample opportunities many times
over for soil formation. See Klevberg, P. and Bandy, R., CRSQ 39:252–68;
CRSQ 40:99–116, 2003; Walker, T.,
Paleosols: digging deeper buries “challenge” to Flood geology,
Journal of Creation 17(3):28–34, 2003.
- Limited extent of unconformities (unconformity: a surface of erosion that separates
younger strata from older rocks). Surfaces erode quickly (e.g. Badlands, South Dakota),
but there are very limited unconformities. There is the “great unconformity”
at the base of the Grand Canyon, but otherwise there are supposedly ~300 million
years of strata deposited on top without any significant unconformity. This is again
consistent with a much shorter time of deposition of these strata. See
Para(pseudo)conformities.
- The amount of salt in the world’s
oldest lake contradicts its supposed age and suggests an age more consistent
with its formation after Noah’s Flood, which is consistent with a young age of the earth.
- The discovery that underwater landslides (“turbidity currents”) travelling
at some 50 km/h can create huge areas of sediment in a matter of hours (Press, F.,
and Siever, R., Earth, 4th ed., Freeman & Co., NY, USA,
1986). Sediments thought to have formed slowly over eons of time are now becoming
recognized as having formed extremely rapidly. See for example,
A classic tillite reclassified as a submarine debris flow (Technical).
- Flume tank research with sediment of different particle sizes show that layered
rock strata that were thought to have formed over huge periods of time in lake beds
actually formed very quickly. Even the precise layer thicknesses of rocks were duplicated
after they were ground into their sedimentary particles and run through the flume.
See Experiments in stratification of heterogeneous
sand mixtures, Sedimentation Experiments:
Nature finally catches up! and Sandy Stripes
Do many layers mean many years?
- Observed examples of rapid canyon formation; for example,
Providence Canyon in southwest Georgia,
Burlingame Canyon near Walla Walla, Washington, and
Lower Loowit Canyon near Mount St Helens. The rapidity of the formation
of these canyons, which look similar to other canyons that supposedly took many
millions of years to form, brings into question the supposed age of the canyons
that no one saw form.
- Observed examples of rapid island formation and maturation, such as
Surtsey, which confound the notion that such islands take long periods of time
to form. See also, Tuluman—A Test of
Time.
- Rate of erosion of coastlines, horizontally.
E.g. Beachy Head, UK, loses a metre of coast to the sea every six years.
- Rate of erosion of continents vertically is not consistent with the assumed old age of the earth.
See Creation 22(2):18–21.
- Existence of significant flat plateaux
that are “dated” at many millions of years old (“elevated
paleoplains”). An example is Kangaroo
Island (Australia). C.R. Twidale, a famous Australian physical geographer
wrote: “the survival of these paleoforms is in some degree an embarrassment
to all the commonly accepted models of landscape development.” Twidale, C.R.
On the survival of paleoforms, American Journal of Science 5(276):77–95,
1976 (quote on p. 81). See Austin, S.A.,
Did landscapes evolve? Impact 118, April 1983.
- The recent and almost simultaneous origin of all the high mountain ranges around the world—including the Himalayas, the Alps, the Andes, and the Rockies—which have undergone most of the uplift to their present elevations beginning “five million” years ago, whereas mountain building processes have supposedly been around for up to billions of years. See Baumgardner, J.,
Recent uplift of today’s mountains. Impact 381, March 2005.
- Water gaps. These are gorges cut through mountain ranges where rivers run. They
occur worldwide and are part of what evolutionary geologists call “discordant
drainage systems”. They are “discordant” because they don’t
fit the deep time belief system. The evidence fits them forming rapidly in a much
younger age framework where the gorges were cut in the recessive stage / dispersive
phase of the global Flood of Noah’s day. See Oard, M.,
Do rivers erode through mountains? Water gaps are strong evidence for the
Genesis Flood, Creation 29(3):18–23, 2007.
Measured erosion rates at places like Niagara Falls are consistent with a time frame
of several thousand years since Noah’s Flood.
- Erosion at Niagara Falls and other
such places is consistent with just a few thousand years since the biblical Flood.
- River delta growth rate is consistent with thousands of years since the biblical
Flood, not vast periods of time. The argument goes back to Mark Twain. E.g. 1. Mississippi—Creation
Research Quarterly (CRSQ) 9:96–114, 1992; CRSQ
14:77; CRSQ 25:121–123. E.g. 2
Tigris–Euphrates: CRSQ 14:87, 1977.
- Underfit streams. River valleys are too large for the streams they contain. Dury
speaks of the “continent-wide distribution of underfit streams”. Using
channel meander characteristics, Dury concluded that past streams frequently had
20–60 times their current discharge. This means that the river valleys would
have been carved very quickly, not slowly over eons of time. See Austin, S.A.,
Did landscapes evolve? Impact 118, 1983.
- Amount of salt in the sea. Even ignoring
the effect of the biblical Flood and assuming zero starting salinity and all rates
of input and removal so as to maximize the time taken to accumulate all the salt,
the maximum age of the oceans, 62 million years, is less than 1/50 of the
age evolutionists claim for the oceans. This suggests that the age of the earth is radically less also.
- The amount of sediment
on the sea floors at current rates of land erosion would accumulate in just
12 million years; a blink of the eye compared to the supposed age of much of the
ocean floor of up to 3 billion years. Furthermore, long-age geologists reckon that
higher erosion rates applied in the past, which shortens the time frame.
From a biblical point of view, at the end of Noah’s Flood lots of sediment
would have been added to the sea with the water coming off the unconsolidated land,
making the amount of sediment perfectly consistent with a history of thousands of
years.
- Iron-manganese nodules (IMN) on the sea floors. The measured rates of growth of
these nodules indicates an age of only thousands of years. Lalomov, A.V., 2007.
Mineral deposits as an example of geological rates. CRSQ 44(1):64–66.
- The age of placer deposits (concentrations of heavy metals such as tin in modern
sediments and consolidated sedimentary rocks). The measured rates of deposition
indicate an age of thousands of years, not the assumed millions. See Lalomov, A.V.,
and Tabolitch, S.E., 2000.
Age determination of coastal submarine placer, Val’cumey, northern Siberia.
Journal of Creation (TJ) 14(3):83–90.
- Pressure in oil / gas wells indicate the recent origin of the oil and gas. If they
were many millions of years old we would expect the pressures to equilibrate, even
in low permeability rocks. “Experts in petroleum prospecting note the impossibility
of creating an effective model given long and slow oil generation over millions
of years (Petukhov, 2004). In their opinion, if models demand the standard multimillion-years
geochronological scale, the best exploration strategy is to drill wells on a random
grid.” Lalomov, A.V., 2007. Mineral deposits as an example of geological rates.
CRSQ 44(1):64–66.
- Direct evidence that oil is forming
today in the Guaymas Basin and in Bass
Strait is consistent with a young earth (although not necessary
for a young earth).
- Rapid reversals in paleomagnetism
undermine use of paleomagnetism in long ages dating of rocks and speak of rapid
processes, compressing the long-age time scale enormously.
- The pattern of magnetization in the magnetic stripes where
magma is welling up at the mid-ocean trenches argues against the belief that reversals take many thousands of years and rather indicates rapid sea-floor spreading as well as rapid magnetic reversals, consistent with a young earth (Humphreys, D.R., Has the Earth’s magnetic field ever flipped? Creation Research Quarterly 25(3):130–137, 1988).
Along the mid-ocean ridges, the detailed pattern of magnetic polarisation, with islands of differing polarity, speaks of rapid changes in direction of Earth’s magnetic field because of the rate of cooling of the lava. This is consistent with a young Earth.
- Measured rates of stalactite and stalagmite
growth in limestone caves are consistent with a young age of several thousand
years. See also articles on limestone cave
formation.
- The decay of the earth’s magnetic
field. Exponential decay is evident from measurements and is consistent with
theory of free decay since creation, suggesting an age of the earth of less than 20,000 years.
- Excess heat flow from the earth is consistent with a young age rather than billions
of years, even taking into account heat from radioactive decay. SeeWoodmorappe,
J., 1999. Lord Kelvin revisited on the young
age of the earth. Journal of Creation (TJ) 13(1):14,
1999.
Radiometric dating
- Carbon-14 in coal
suggests ages of thousands of years and clearly contradict ages of millions of years.
- Carbon-14 in oil again suggests
ages of thousands, not millions, of years.
- Carbon-14 in fossil wood also indicates
ages of thousands, not millions, of years.
- Carbon-14 in diamonds suggests ages
of thousands, not billions, of years.
- Incongruent radioisotope dates
using the same technique argue against trusting the dating methods that give
millions of years.
- Incongruent radioisotope dates
using different techniques argue against trusting the dating methods that give
millions of years (or billions of years for the age of the earth).
- Demonstrably non-radiogenic “isochrons”
of radioactive and non-radioactive elements undermine the assumptions behind
isochron “dating” that gives billions of years.
“False” isochrons are common.
- Different faces of the same zircon crystal and
different zircons from the same rock giving different “ages” undermine
all “dates” obtained from zircons.
- Evidence of a period of rapid radioactive
decay in the recent past (lead and helium concentrations and diffusion rates
in zircons) point to a young earth explanation.
- The amount of helium, a product of alpha-decay of radioactive elements, retained
in zircons in granite is consistent with an age of 6,000±2000 years, not
the supposed billions of years. See: Humphreys, D.R., Young helium diffusion age
of zircons supports accelerated nuclear decay, in Vardiman, Snelling, and Chaffin
(eds.), Radioisotopes and the Age of the Earth: Results of a Young Earth Creationist
Research Initiative, Institute for Creation Research and Creation Research
Society, 848 pp., 2005
- Lead in zircons from deep drill cores vs. shallow ones. They are similar, but there
should be less in the deep ones due to the higher heat causing higher diffusion
rates over the usual long ages supposed. If the ages are thousands of years, there
would not be expected to be much difference, which is the case (Gentry, R., et al.,
Differential lead retention in zircons: Implications for nuclear waste containment,
Science 216(4543):296–298, 1982; DOI: 10.1126/science.216.4543.296).
- Pleochroic halos produced in granite by concentrated specks of short half-life elements
such as polonium suggest a period of rapid nuclear decay of the long half-life parent
isotopes during the formation of the rocks and rapid formation of the rocks, both
of which speak against the usual ideas of geological deep time and a vast age of the earth. See,
Radiohalos: Startling evidence of catastrophic geologic processes, Creation
28(2):46–50, 2006.
- Squashed pleochroic halos (radiohalos)
formed from decay of polonium, a very short half-life element, in coalified wood
from several geological eras suggest rapid formation of all the layers about the
same time, in the same process, consistent with the biblical “young”
earth model rather than the millions of years claimed for these events.
- Australia’s “Burning Mountain”
speaks against radiometric dating and the millions of years belief system (according
to radiometric dating of the lava intrusion that set the coal alight, the coal in
the burning mountain has been burning for ~40 million years, but clearly this is
not feasible).
Astronomical evidence
Photo by NASA
Saturn’s rings are increasingly recognized as being relatively short-lived
rather than essentially changeless over millions of years.
- Evidence of recent volcanic activity on Earth’s moon is inconsistent with
its supposed vast age because it should have long since cooled if it were billions
of years old. See:
Transient lunar phenomena: a permanent problem for evolutionary models of Moon formation
and Walker, T., and Catchpoole, D.,
Lunar volcanoes rock long-age timeframe, Creation 31(3):18,
2009.
- Recession of the moon from the earth.
Tidal friction causes the moon to recede from the earth at 4 cm per year. It would
have been greater in the past when the moon and earth were closer together. The
moon and earth would have been in catastrophic proximity (Roche limit) at less than
a quarter of their supposed age.
- Slowing down of the earth. Tidal dissipation rate of Earth’s angular momentum:
increasing length of day, currently by 0.002 seconds/day every century (thus an impossibly
short day billions of years ago and a very slow day shortly after accretion and
before the postulated giant impact to form the Moon). See:
How long has the moon been receding?
- Ghost craters on the moon’s maria (singular mare: dark “seas”
formed from massive lava flows) are a problem for long ages. Evolutionists believe
that the lava flows were caused by enormous impacts, and this lava partly buried
other, smaller, impact craters, leaving “ghosts”. But this means that
the smaller impacts can’t have been too long after the huge one, otherwise
the lava would have hardened before the impact. This suggests a very narrow time
frame for lunar cratering, and by implication the other cratered bodies of our solar
system. They suggest that the cratering occurred quite quickly. See Fryman, H.,
Ghost craters
in the sky, Creation Matters 4(1):6, 1999;
A biblically based cratering theory (Faulkner);
Lunar volcanoes rock long-age timeframe.
- The presence of a significant magnetic
field around Mercury is not consistent with its supposed age of billions of
years. A planet so small should have cooled down enough so any liquid core would
solidify, preventing the evolutionists’ “dynamo” mechanism. See
also, Humphreys, D.R., Mercury’s magnetic field is young!
Journal of Creation 22(3):8–9, 2008.
- The outer planets Uranus and Neptune have magnetic fields, but they should be long
“dead” if they are as old as claimed according to evolutionary long-age
beliefs. Assuming a solar system age of thousands of years, physicist Russell Humphreys
successfully predicted the strengths of the
magnetic fields of Uranus and Neptune.
- Jupiter’s larger moons, Ganymede,
Io, and Europa, have magnetic fields, which they should not have if they were
billions of years old, because they have solid cores and so no dynamo could generate
the magnetic fields. This is consistent with creationist Humphreys’ predictions.
See also, Spencer, W., Ganymede: the surprisingly magnetic moon,
Journal of Creation 23(1):8–9, 2009.
- Volcanically active moons of Jupiter (Io)
are consistent with youthfulness (Galileo mission recorded 80 active volcanoes).
If Io had been erupting over 4.5 billion years at even 10% of its current rate,
it would have erupted its entire mass 40 times. Io looks like a young moon and does
not fit with the supposed billions of year’s age for the solar system. Gravitational
tugging from Jupiter and other moons accounts for only some of the excess heat produced.
- The surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa. Studies of the few craters indicated
that up to 95% of small craters, and many medium-sized ones, are formed from debris
thrown up by larger impacts. This means that there have been far fewer impacts than
had been thought in the solar system and the age of other objects in the solar system,
derived from cratering levels, have to be reduced drastically (see Psarris, Spike,
What you aren’t being told about astronomy, volume 1: Our created solar system
DVD, available from CMI).
- Methane on Titan (Saturn’s
largest moon)—methane would all be gone because of UV-induced breakdown to
ethane in just 10,000 years. And large quantities of ethane are not there either.
- The rate of change / disappearance of Saturn’s rings is
inconsistent with their supposed vast age; they speak of youthfulness.
- Enceladus, a moon of Saturn, looks young. Astronomers working in the “billions
of years” mindset thought that this moon would be cold and dead, but it is
a very active moon, spewing massive jets of water vapour and icy particles into
space at supersonic speeds, consistent with a much younger age. Calculations show
that the interior would have frozen solid after 30 million years (less than 1% of
its supposed age); tidal friction from Saturn does not explain its youthful activity
(Psarris, Spike, What you aren’t being told about astronomy, volume 1: Our
created solar system DVD; Walker, T., 2009. Enceladus: Saturn’s sprightly
moon looks young, Creation 31(3):54–55).
- Miranda, a small moon of Uranus, should have been long since dead, if billions of
years old, but its extreme surface features suggest otherwise. See
Revelations in the solar system.
- Neptune should be long since “cold”, lacking strong wind movement if
it were billions of years old, yet Voyager II in 1989 found it to be otherwise—it
has the fastest winds in the entire solar system. This observation is consistent
with a young age, not billions of years. See Neptune:
monument to creation.
- Neptune’s rings have thick regions and thin regions. This unevenness means
they cannot be billions of years old, since collisions of the ring objects would
eventually make the ring very uniform.
Revelations in the solar system.
- Young surface age of Neptune’s moon, Triton—less than 10 million years,
even with evolutionary assumptions on rates of impacts (see Schenk, P.M., and Zahnle,
K.
On the Negligible Surface Age of Triton, Icarus 192(1):135–149,
2007. <doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2007.07.004>.
- Uranus and Neptune both have magnetic fields significantly off-axis, which is an
unstable situation. When this was discovered with Uranus, it was assumed by evolutionary
astronomers that Uranus must have just happened to be going through a magnetic field
reversal. However, when a similar thing was found with Neptune, this
AD hoc explanation was upset.
These observations are consistent with ages of thousands of years rather
than billions.
- The orbit of Pluto is chaotic on a 20 million year time scale and affects the rest
of the solar system, which would also become unstable on that time scale, suggesting
that it must be much younger. (See: Rothman, T., God takes a nap, Scientific American
259(4):20, 1988).
- The existence of short-period comets
(orbital period less than 200 years), e.g. Halley, which have a life of less than
20,000 years, is consistent with an age of the solar system of less than 10,000
years. AD hoc hypotheses have to be invented
to circumvent this evidence (see Kuiper Belt).
See Comets and the age of the solar system.
- “Near-infrared spectra of the Kuiper Belt Object, Quaoar and the suspected
Kuiper Belt Object, Charon, indicate both contain crystalline water ice and ammonia
hydrate. This watery material cannot be much older than 10 million years, which
is consistent with a young solar system, not one that is 5 billion years old.”
See: The “waters above”
.
- Lifetime of long-period comets (orbital period greater than 200 years) that are
sun-grazing comets or others like Hyakutake or Hale–Bopp means they could
not have originated with the solar system 4.5 billion years ago. However, their
existence is consistent with a young age for the solar system. Again an AD hoc
Oort Cloud was invented to try to account for these comets still being
present after billions of years. See, Comets
and the age of the solar system.
- The maximum expected lifetime of near-earth asteroids is of the order of one million
years, after which they collide with the sun. And the Yarkovsky effect moves main
belt asteroids into near-earth orbits faster than had been thought. This brings
into question the origin of asteroids with the formation of the solar system (the
usual scenario), or the solar system is much younger than the 4.5 billion years
claimed. Henry, J., The asteroid belt: indications of its youth, Creation Matters
11(2):2, 2006.
- The lifetime of binary asteroids—where a tiny asteroid “moon”
orbits a larger asteroid— in the main belt (they represent about 15–17%
of the total): tidal effects limit the life of such binary systems to about 100,000
years. The difficulties in conceiving of any scenario for getting binaries to form
in such numbers to keep up the population, led some astronomers to doubt their existence,
but space probes confirmed it (Henry, J., The asteroid belt: indications of its
youth, Creation Matters 11(2):2, 2006).
- The observed rapid rate of change in stars
contradicts the vast ages assigned to stellar evolution. For example, Sakurai’s
Object in Sagittarius: in 1994, this star was most likely a white dwarf in the centre
of a planetary nebula; by 1997 it had grown to a bright yellow giant, about 80 times
wider than the sun (Astronomy & Astrophysics 321:L17,
1997). In 1998, it had expanded even further, to a red supergiant 150 times wider
than the sun. But then it shrank just as quickly; by 2002 the star itself was invisible
even to the most powerful optical telescopes, although it is detectable in the infrared,
which shines through the dust (Muir, H., 2003, Back from the dead, New Scientist
177(2384):28–31).
- The faint young sun paradox. According to stellar evolution theory, as the sun’s
core transforms from hydrogen to helium by means of nuclear fusion, the mean molecular
weight increases, which would compress the sun’s core increasing fusion rate.
The upshot is that over several billion years, the sun ought to have brightened
40% since its formation and 25% since the appearance of life on earth. For the latter,
this translates into a 16–18 ºC temperature increase on the earth. The
current average temperature is 15 ºC, so the earth ought to have had a-2 ºC
or so temperature when life appeared. See: Faulkner, D.,
The young faint Sun paradox and the age of the solar system, Journal of Creation
(TJ) 15(2):3–4, 2001.
- Cometesimals. From his studies, astronomer Louis Frank says that 100 million tonnes
of water is being added to Earth every year in cometesimals (small comet remnants).
This has strong implications for the supposed age of the oceans, if confirmed. See:
Bergman, J., Advances in integrating cosmology:
The case of cometesimals, Journal of Creation (CENTJ)
10(2):202–210, 1996.
- The giant gas planets Jupiter and Saturn radiate more energy than they receive from
the sun, suggesting a recent origin. Jupiter radiates almost twice as much energy
as it receives from the sun, indicating that it may be less than 1 % of the presumed
4.5 billion years old solar system. Saturn radiates nearly twice as much energy
per unit mass as Jupiter. See The age of
the Jovian planets.
- Speedy stars are consistent with a young age for the universe. For example, many
stars in the dwarf galaxies in the Local Group are moving away from each other at
speeds estimated at to 10–12 km/s. At these speeds, the stars should have
dispersed in 100 Ma, which, compared with the supposed 14,000 Ma age of the universe,
is a short time. See
Fast stars challenge big bang origin for dwarf galaxies.
- The ageing of spiral galaxies (much less than 200 million years) is not consistent
with their supposed age of many billions of years. The
discovery of extremely “young” spiral galaxies highlights the
problem of this evidence for the evolutionary ages assumed.
- The number of type I supernova remnants
(SNRs) observable in our galaxy is consistent with an age of thousands of years,
not millions or billions. See Davies, K., Proc. 3rd
ICC, pp. 175–184, 1994.
- The rate of expansion and size of supernovas indicates that all studied are young
(less than 10,000 years). See supernova remnants.
Human history is consistent with a young age of the earth
- Human population growth. Less than 0.5% p.a. growth from six people 4,500 years
ago would produce today’s population.
Where are all the people? if we have been here much longer?
- “Stone age” human skeletons and artefacts. There are not enough for
100,000 years of a human population of just one million, let alone more people (10
million?). See Where are all the people?
- Length of recorded history. Origin of various civilizations, writing, etc., all
about the same time several thousand years ago. See
Evidence for a young world.
- Languages. Similarities in languages claimed to be separated by many tens of thousands
of years speaks against the supposed ages (e.g. compare some aboriginal languages
in Australia with languages in south-eastern India and Sri Lanka). See
The Tower of Babel account affirmed by linguistics.
- Common cultural “myths” speak of recent separation of peoples around
the world. An example of this is the frequency of
stories of an earth-destroying flood.
- Origin of agriculture. Secular dating puts it at about 10,000 years and yet that
same chronology says that modern man has supposedly been around for at least 200,000
years. Surely someone would have worked out much sooner how to sow seeds of plants
to produce food. See: Evidence for a young
world.
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