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A New Biblically Based Scientific Cosmology Offers a Solution to the Time Puzzle

Cosmology is the game of theorizing about the origin and history of the universe. Dr. D. Russell Humphreys, a physicist at the Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico, has published a theory for a biblically grounded cosmology in his 1994 book, Starlight and TimeSolving the Puzzle of distant Starlight in a Young Universe.⁶⁰ Dr. Humphreys explains how secular scientists built their Big Bang cosmology on two secular assumptions:

1. The universe is unbounded, either finite or infinite, and has no center and no outer surface or edge.

2. No location is uniquely different from any other and, therefore, the earth where we live does not have a special place in the universe.

One of the consequences of these assumptions is that, since the universe has no center and no edge or outer surface, there is no gravity force vector pointing toward a center. When these assumptions are fed into the mathematical equations of Einstein's general theory of relativity, the Big Bang cosmology automatically results.

In contrast, Dr. Humphreys began with biblical information about the creation of the universe. His assumptions are:

1. The universe is bounded and finite.

2. The earth is located near the center of the universe.

With these assumptions, there is a gravity force vector pointing toward the center near the earth. Feeding these assumptions into the equations of relativity theory results in a startling new cosmology that allows for an earth only 6000 years or so old. At the same time it explains the three principle kinds of evidence that are used to support the Big Bang cosmology. These are:

1. The fact that light from galaxies billions of light years away has reached the earth that is only 6000 or so years old,

2. The fact of the red shift of the light from the distant galaxies, and

3. The cosmic microwave background radiation that, by the use of radio telescopes, we can observe coming in from all directions in space. This microwave radiation is supposed to be the remnant of the initial hot Big Bang radiation that, expanding with the expanding universe, has now cooled down to radiation having the frequency distribution that corresponds to a very cold 2.69 kelvins (i.e., 2.69 degrees above absolute zero).

The mathematical development of Dr. Humphreys' argument using the general theory of relativity is quite complex, but some aspects and results can be described simply. It turns out in relativity theory that all clocks or processes involving time(including the travel of light through space) are affected by gravity. Two atomic clocks, one located near sea level in England and the other in Colorado at an altitude above 5000 feet, run at different speeds. The clock in Boulder, Colorado, gains five millionths of a second per year over the clock in Greenwich, England. They are both accurate to within one millionth of a second per year. This difference in clock speeds is correctly predicted by relativity theory. The clock in the weaker gravity field farther from the center of the earth runs faster.

Let us look now at the whole universe with the earth close to the center. Relativity theory tells us that clocks at the outer edge of the universe will run very much faster that on earth near the center. They will register billions of years when earth clocks register only a day! Therefore, in the first three days of the creation week on earth, light had ample time to travel billions of light years from the farthest galaxies near the edge of space to be seen on earth on the fourth day. This is how Humphreys' theory solves the problem of the light from distant galaxies.

Dr. Humphreys is careful to point out that his radical new theory will be critically examined, perhaps for years, before it can either be falsified or become an established scientific theory. Motivated particularly by Setterfield's theory of a decreasing speed of light, he began his eight years of study of the time issue by carefully searching the Scriptures to obtain his fundamental assumptions. He reasoned that if the secularists can feed their secular philosophical assumptions into their scientific theories, then Christians can feed their biblically based assumptions into their scientific theories. The two theories of cosmology are in public competition on a scientific level, not just on a philosophical level. It will be most interesting to see how the secular evolutionary scientists respond to their challenger.

Dr. Humphreys has given us a good example of how Christians should function in science. They should seek guidance from God's word and let their endeavors be motivated by the desire to glorify God and promote the understanding of His truth. It may be that Dr. Hugh Ross and some other well-meaning Christian scientists have surrendered too quickly to the secular great-age-Big Bang concept of the universe that was crafted using secularist assumptions, rather than biblical assumptions.

References

60. Humphreys, Russell D., Starlight and TimeSolving the Puzzle of Distant Starlight in a Young Universe (Master Books, Colorado Springs, CO, 1994).