Starlight and Time: Solving the Puzzle of Distant Starlight in a Young Universe

by Russell Humphreys

Book Overview

The Bible says the universe is just thousands of years old, and yet we can see stars that are billions of light-years away. Until now, creation scientists have not had a satisfactory answer to this... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0890512027
• ISBN13: 9780890512029
• Release Date: October 1996
• Publisher: Master Books
• Length: 138 Pages
• Weight: 0.39 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.6" x 8.4"

Customer Reviews

Outstanding "Out of the Box" Thinking

This book is a rarely-seen example of true "out of the box" thinking. Unlike conventional physicists, who are locked into an old-universe mentality, Humphreys shows his willingness to explore other options. Both his thinking and manner of writing are lucid and descriptive. I guarantee that, whether or not you agree with this book, it will stimulate your thinking and change the way you picture the universe.

Original and sound answer to common bibliosceptical problem

How can we see light from stars billions away if the Bible says that creation occurred in six consecutive normal days?Dr Russell Humphreys, a nuclear physicist working with Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico, provides a fascinating answer. He has developed a new cosmology which uses the same theoretical foundation as all modern cosmologies including the 'big-bang': Einstein's theory of general relativity. Dr Humphreys changes one assumption in the 'big bang' cosmology, and that is that matter in the universe is unbounded, that is, all space is completely filled with matter. This is *not* how non-experts normally imagine the cosmos. The 'big bang' is based on another assumption called the *cosmological principle*, which states that an observer's view of the universe depends neither on the direction in which he looks nor on his location. He replaces those assumptions with another -- a universe whose matter is bounded, that is, matter surrounded by empty space for some distance beyond the matter. That is how non-experts normally imagine the cosmos, but *not* how expert 'big bang' cosmologists picture it.The importance of General relativity is that it teaches us that time is not the same everywhere in this universe, but instead can run at very different rates. Indeed, Einstein's theory of general relativity indicates that the rate at which time passes depends on the strength of the surrounding gravitational field. With certain initial conditions at the Creation, a literal day or two could have passed on the Earth while from 'the light's point of view', it had millions or even billions of years to get here. So the entire universe was created in six ordinary Earth-rotation days, 6,000 years ago by earth clocks. Such things are possible as a consequence of general relativity, which simply is a description of the universe as valid as we are able to currently determine.So far, his cosmological model has withstood all sceptical attacks to date -- he has firmly refuted Rossite attacks in the CEN Technical Journal, and the attacks and his answers are posted on the Answers in Genesis site. Many of these bibliosceptics don't even realise the unproven *philosophical assumption* behind the 'big bang', and fail to realise that it's equally physically valid to use Dr Humphreys' alternative assumption.Dr Humphreys' book is written at a layman's level, but has a technical appendix. Dr Humphreys is humble enough not to believe that his model is necessarily the final word, but that Christians should base their faith on the Bible, which is the final Word of One who was there and knows everything.

Outstanding defense of young earth creationism!

In this new book, Dr. Russel Humphreys proposes a new theory of cosmology (an alternative to the Big Bang theory). Being a young-earth creationist, Dr. Humphreys believes the earth was created in six literal days about 6,000 years ago (contrary to what is taught by most scientists today). He uses Einstein's general theory of relativity, which is the best theory of gravity we have today, to prove his theory. Dr. Humphreys opens his book by proposing a solution for the "unsolvable problem" of how distant starlight can be seen on a young earth. Dr. Humphreys attempts to show "that gravitational time distortion in the early universe would have meant that while a few days were passing on earth, billions of years would have been available for light [from distant stars] to travel to earth." He goes on to discuss the Big Bang theory, the idea of a bounded universe versus a non-bounded universe, how expansion affects the time difference, black holes and event horizons, and white holes. He shows why the universe must be bounded as opposed to unbounded. The initial assumption of an unbounded cosmos, when fed through the mathematical mechanisms of general relativity produces the Big Bang cosmology. However, when Humphreys feeds the base assumption of a bounded cosmos through those same mathematical mechanisms, he gets a drastically different cosmology, which he calls White Hole cosmology. The second chapter of the book presents "a possible scenario" of the Creation Week. He leads us through the first six days of the universe showing how the Biblical account of Creation coincides with his new theory. This book was originally produced as a chapter intended for a larger book called Thousands, not Billions: Exciting, Easy-To-Understand Evidence for a Young World. Humphreys considers it only the outlines of a theory which he says "is not yet well enough developed to make detailed quantitative predictions which would observationally distinguish it from conventional theories." In addition to the two chapters discussed above, he includes three appendixes. The first appendix summarizes the previous four Creationist theories of the subject, and gives his objections to each one. The second two appendixes are technical papers that he has written which explain in more detail some of the fine aspects of his theory.I HIGHLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK to anyone has ever wondered HOW DISTANT STARLIGHT CAN BE SEEN ON AN EARTH THAT IS ONLY ABOUT 6,000 YEARS OLD.

Execellent challenge to the idea of an old universe.

This book is very understandable to someone without a physics background and yet the author provides the math at the back to support his theory. I have a physics degree and his mathematics and theories held true. I also shared it with one of my physics professors who has a Ph.D. in physics and he found nothing wrong with Dr. Humphreys theories or math. I recommend this book to anyone who has ever wondered how the universe could be young, and yet we can get light from distant galaxies.To answer one of the critics above: The Big Bang Theory itself states that the whole universe was at one time together in a very small volume. There is your mass to allow for gravitational time dilation.