Ages of Time: Geological and Astronomical
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There have been many ideas - stories, myths - about
age and origins. But since the birth of science most of them have become mere
curiosities. Two remain in serious contention. The account developed by secular
humanist reasoning, characterized by naturalistic processes working over
thousands of millions of years, is today by far the more popular. The other,
characterized by supernatural creation a few thousand years ago, after having
almost disappeared from serious discussion by the middle of the 20th century,
has experienced a remarkable return to favour in the last decades.
Before looking at these two competing ideas it
should be noted that science is powerless to discover anything about origins
with any degree of certainty. Science needs observations to work on, and none
covering the critical times and events are available. The best we can hope for
is to propose a selection of hypotheses and examine extant data to see how well
it fits those hypotheses. We are forced to make many assumptions in our
analysis, crucial data is missing and we can never gain anything close to
certainty for our conclusions.
Data is available concerning the world as it is
today. Using what appear to be reasonable assumptions much of this data seems to
point to an age of the earth and the universe of the order of thousands of
years. Other data seems to point to a far greater age, some to millions, some to
thousands of millions of years. Not surprisingly secular humanists esteem the
data pointing to great ages very highly, and tend to ignore that pointing to a
young age. Creationists tend to place far more emphasis on the data the humanist
prefers not to dwell on.
Modern secular humanist scientists tend to give the
impression that no real scientist believes in creation and its short time scale.
However, some of the greatest scientists have been creationists - Isaac Newton,
Leonard Euler, James Clerk Maxwell, J.J. Thomson, and Michael Faraday to mention
just a few. Many fine scientists today are creationists and hold to a time scale
far shorter than that popularly put forward. Unfortunately such a stance is
unpopular with the ruling authorities in science, and some good scientists,
Robert V. Genty and
Richard Sternberg,
for example, have been penalised for their stand. It is likely that this
unfortunate situation prevents a number of scientists from openly supporting a
short time scale.
Pertinent Links - Some to Outside Sites - All
encountered later
The Persecution of Richard Sternberg
Biography of Charles Lyell |
Biography of James Hutton
Principles of Geology Chapter 3 |
The Student's Elements of Geology
Walter Brown's Hydroplate Theory |
Baumgardner's Runaway Subduction
Chadwick's Creation Flood |
The famed Ostrichosaurus
Ooparts and Ancient High Technology: Evidence of Noah's Flood?
A Closer Look At The Age Of The
Earth |
Creation Research Society (CRS)
Earth History Research Center
|
California Institute of Omniology
Center for Scientific Creation
|
Lambert Dolphin's Library
Tas Walker's Homepage
|
Amazing Discoveries
|
Answers in Genesis
True Origin Archive
|
Global Flood
|
Midclyth
Astronomy & Origins |
True.Origin
Archive |
Answers in Genesis
Creation Discovery Project |
Midclyth |
Barry
Setterfield
Lambert Dolphin's Library |
Creation
Guy |
California
Institute of Omniology
|