As is my normal pattern, I post a bunch, then I’m silent, and then I post…. My excuse is that I have been in creation mode, in two ways.
First, my family and I were able to attend an event that I believe will become more and more well known and popular. It was a Creation Camp where I got to play and lead music. Plus, there were heavy hitting scientists as well as those grounded in the biblical content concerning creation. I have long been intrigued by the peddling and back-peddling in the debate over Evolution, and it seems that the more we learn the more the theories of Evolution look like blind faith, and even a formal religion. There is one area, however, where the stalwarts of Evolution have seemed to triumph: Starlight. How can we see light from millions and billions of light years away if the earth is really only 6000 to 10,000 years old? Good question. It deserves as answer.
I find my grandpa’s (Gordon H. Clark) lecture on Time and Eternity absolutely thrilling. I listened several times as I drove through the middle of the night while trying to stay awake through the long hours of Kansas. It worked like a charm. Now, though this is still over my head, I find the theory of time in relation to the creation week of the Scriptures to be very compelling. There is a developing theory based upon the relativity of time, and how it relates to the earth and the cosmos.
Now that I have you on the edge of your seats, you need to check out Creation.com. There is a growing number of highly respected scientists that are dealing with every aspect of creation from climatology to cosmology.
My other creation mode? Music. Just for fun, I am giving away a Christmas tune! It a pre-release version – meaning not really mixed, not mastered, and maybe not even done. But you can grab Un Flambeau Jeannette Isabelle here. Enjoy!
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Nathan,
Tremendously enjoyed your music at the Creation Camp.
Oh, and if you ever have a skeptic question you about starlight and time as a creationist, before you even try to explain to them Carmeli’s physics or the Hartnett or Humphreys models, just remember that big bang-ers have a similar (though much more difficult) problem in the horizon problem. http://creation.com/light-travel-time-a-problem-for-the-big-bang
Hope to see you at another Creation Camp someday!
Greg
Thanks Greg! I’ll read that link.
i don’t believe starlight is a major problem, when God created the stars do you think he would leave them millions of light years away and not let their light shine on the earth? what would be the point then? if the heavens are supposed to declare Gods glory, i would expect when God created the stars he would have created them already completely visible for us to gaze at with wonder and awe. it would be a waste of time for him to create them any other way.
Matthew, agreed. If we believe in creation in the first place the creation of a mature cosmos is no issue, just as the creation of a mature man is no issue. The supernatural answers this very easily.
I suppose the search for a theory that explains distant starlight is, in part, out of a desire to provide a naturalistic mechanism in order to answer the critics. Of course answering critics can lead down strange paths, but the discipline of trying to unify what we observe in nature is a good one. What we observe over and over on earth is that it is young, and the effort to explain starlight then becomes fascinating. So, I agree with you, but find the dominion mandate plenty of reason to give the effort toward understanding the universe in a way that does not make God out to be a fraud (not that I think God is a fraud if we little brained humans can’t understand…). The heavens declare the glory of God (Ps.19), and because God is logos/word (1 John) what we see in nature should be consistent with what we see in the Scriptures. And, to further agree with you, one aspect of God’s nature we see in the Scriptures is that He can and has suspended the laws of nature. However, when we take into account the theory of Time a theory to explain the distance issue may come to light. While not dismissing the supernatural (thankfully), I thought Dr. Hartnett’s approach was at the very least thought provoking.
Thanks for your comment – it made me think through why we go through all this in the first place!
Peace.
Nathan,
I really enjoyed your music at the Creation conference. Thanks for coming to share with us. I especially appreciate the focus on scripture in your songs. Keep up the good work, and the good music!
Hi Matthew,
One thing also about explaining a mechanism (not naturalistic, though, for God still created the stars and the light) for how we see startlight from billions of light years away in a universe God created only a few thousand years ago is that the very starlight contains information about events that occurred at some point in the past (exploding supernovas, for example). If those events never actually happened, but God merely created the light in transit containing such information, that would make God a deceiver, which He clearly is not according to the Word. This is explained more thoroughly in chapter 5 of the Creation Answers book (http://creation.com/images/pdfs/cabook/chapter5.pdf).
The issue of starlight and time may not have been a problem for your faith, which is fine. But there are people who are troubled by such questions. The more we are able to answer people to show them the Bible can be trusted in regards to the world they see around them, the fewer roadblocks there may be towards their believing the Bible in regards to spiritual things (like salvation). See John 3:12. Many people have become believers when they received answers to what they thought were insurmountable problems with the Bible’s history, astronomy, biology, geology, and/or anthropology.
Grace and peace,
Greg
You mentioned your grandfather’s lecture on time and Eternity. Is there any way I could get a copy of that?
Also, I just wanted to let you know I really enjoyed getting to hear you play at the Georgia Homeschoolers Conference back in May. I was really blessed! Thank you for what you do.
In Christ,
Jeremiah
Jeremiah,
Thanks. I’m not sure, but I will ask to see if it is available!
Jeremiah, Here you go! http://www.trinitylectures.org/MP3/Time_and_Eternity.mp3
I vote for Un Flambeau in French on the cd!!!
hey mr nathen i hope ur having a good day every day u might rember me from grace presbyterian church the website is http://www.grace-pca.net/ i bought ur cd i love it ur awesome
Collin – yes, I remember being there! Thanks for the note. Hopefully I can return sometime.