Review by Greg Neyman
© Old Earth Ministries
First Published 7 April 2006
In an article in TJ, young earth creation science theorist (astronomer) John Hartnett reports on the apparent problems of secular astronomers to come to an agreement on the theories of cosmology and the scientific origins of the universe.1 (The article resurfaced as the Daily feature on the Creation Ministries International website on 6 April 2006).
The subtitle proudly proclaims that nearly 100 years after Einstien's theories were formulated, they still disagree. Of course they do. Getting thousands of scientists to agree on one issue is a nearly impossible task. Rather than provide a point by point rebuttal for this article, it is merely necessary to make a few observations.
When you consider young earth creation science, there are very few actual research schools where data is gathered and analyzed. The Institute for Creation Research is the main one, but there are a handful of others, probably less than 20 young earth colleges.
When you consider that there are thousands of colleges and universities that accept an old earth, and there are tens of thousands of scientists researching cosmology at those colleges, it is no surprise that they do not all agree on the principles of cosmology. Add to that the thousands of research scientists in the private sector, and you can see the problem...thousands of scientists each with their own ideas about cosmology. In many cases, the ideas match, but in some instances, they do not. Answers in Genesis typically will find the disagreements, and report on those. However, as a whole, cosmologists all agree that the earth is old.
How Does Science Work?
How does a scientific idea get accepted? Scientists submit their ideas, in the form of research papers, to peer-reviewed journals. If the science is found to be sound, the article may get published. Then, other scientists can examine this new idea, and provide feedback for it. If the idea stands up to this review, it will probably be accepted...at least until a new theory replaces it.
With thousands of scientists, it is easy, as this TJ article shows, to find scientists that disagree. However, what Answers in Genesis does not tell you is that although they disagree on many issues, one issue they agree on is that the universe is old. There is no disagreement on the age issue.
Young Earth Peer Review?
The problem for young earth creationists is that when they submit their articles for publication to a secular journal, they would be rejected, on the grounds that they are not scientifically sound. Young earth proponents would argue that they interpret the evidence differently, but in all cases I've examined, the underlying science is bad.
Thus, young earth creationists created their own "peer-reviewed" journal (TJ, or Technical Journal), with their young earth peers providing the review. However, since they all agree already that the earth is young, it takes the significance out of the peer-review part...they all already accept the bad science in the first place.
Conclusion
When a young earth author says that secular scientists don't agree, it should come as no surprise to anyone. However, although they don't agree on a standard model, most of them agree that the universe is billions of years old. I use the term "most," because there are some young earth creation science theorists who could possibly be called scientists...but that is the topic of another article.
1 Hartnett, John, Cosmologists Can't Agree and Are Still in Doubt!, TJ 16(3): December 2002. Available online at www.answersingenesis.org, under TJ, and on CMI at https://creation.com/Cosmologists-Can-t-Agree-and-Are-Still-In-Doubt
If you are not a Christian, and you have been holding out on making a decision for Christ because the Church always preached a message that was contrary to what you saw in the scientific world, then rest assured that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God, and you can believe in Christ and receive salvation, while still believing in an old earth. Click here for more.
Are you a Christian who believes in young earth creationism? Now that we have shown the many difficulties of the young earth creation science model in this and many other articles, how does this impact your Christian life? If you are a young earth creationism believer, click here.
Related Articles
To learn more
about old earth creationism, see
Old Earth Belief,
or check out the article
Can You Be A
Christian and Believe in an Old Earth?
Feel free to check out more of this website. Our goal is to
provide rebuttals to the bad science behind young earth creationism,
and honor God by properly presenting His creation.