Said TXnMA:
Since you have stated that the time-of-flight of light is a valid measure of distance (out to 6.8 light-hours, at least...), how do you manage to reconcile the photo that I posted in #639 with your "It certainly is true that I believe that God created the heavens and the earth in 6 days about 7k years ago. Indeed, I have not found that science has demonstrated that the earth is billions of years old."
Are you making the claim that the farthest object in that photo is no more than 7000 light-years distant from Earth?
TXnMA, Someone else asked me that very question, and I answered it
here.
Look for paragraph 10, which starts out with DallasMike asking me "
How do you explain being able to see something 2.9 million light years away if the universe is only 6,000 years old?"
I most certainly am NOT making any claim that the farthest object in that photo is no more than 7000 light-years distant from Earth.
-Jesse
I'll reproduce my earlier response to that question here for you:
How do you explain being able to see something 2.9 million light years away if the universe is only 6,000 years old?
Simple: I believe that, in the begining, God created the heavens and the earth. (
Gen 1:1.)
Obviously I believe the Biblical account of the creation of everything. It's a faith, but most people do have a beyond demonstratable-science faith for the begining of matter, whether it be God speaking things into being, or the big bang, which, according to
Berkeley, says that there was nothing and then the vacuum fluctuated and a singularity was born which then turned into the first matter. Now, as a scientist, you know that something from nothing just doesn't happen. Show me if otherwise is true!
So considering that I believe that in the Begining God created the heavens and the earth, is it unreasonable for me to believe that the earth is only ~6k years old? I think not.
But let me tell you a little bit about what it's like to be an engineer who designs and builds things. You build things for a purpose, to do a certain task. The Bible
says that God created man in his own image.
It stands to reason that when God creates something, he too does it for a certain reason - to do a specific job. So let us pretend that we're going to design and build a battery maintainance device which feeds a small bit of electrical current into a motorhome battery to prevent it it from going dead over the winter. This device only puts out a small amperage but it's enough to keep the battery full if it was already full. Now let's say someone comes along and examines this device and says "This is crazy! This device would take a hundred years to charge the battery! And this battery is full! This battery must have been on this charger for a hundred years!"
The truth is, of course, that the battery and the maintainer device were not made as a dating system, and the battery started out full, and the maintainer device just kept it full. The battery is there to provide starting power, and I would install a fresh fully charged battery - not to provide a dating method, but to do a job, right away, which required it to be fully charged.
So I'm arguing that God created the sun, the moon, and the stars for a reason other then for us to date them with. The Bible
says exactly what God created the sun, the moon, and the stars for:
And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: [he made] the stars also.
And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that [it was] good.
(Gen 1:16-18)
Ahah! God made them to rule over the night! As a matter of fact, the stars have been used for marine navigation forever!
So if we know that God created the stars for a reason - to rule over the night like the sun rules over the day, then what would we expect? Well, if they are to be used for navigation, they need to be pretty far away so they aren't just as much a moving target as the earth is. But on the other hand, they'd have to be visible from earth - which means in order for God to fullfill his objective, he'd have to also make the light in transit. Remember, he made them as a tool, to perform a task, so we would expect them to be fully functional - without having to wait billions of years. And if God created the heavens and the earth and things that make light, do you think he'd have a problem creating light?
Another example is Adam, which by the way, the Bible
says And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. -- See? Even man was created for a certain task - tending the garden!
Anyway, back to Adam, whom God formed from the dust of the earth. (
Gen 2:7)
So do you suppose that when God breathed the breath of life into Adam's nostrils Adam came alive but found himself completely starving hungry, as weak as a baby and just as smart? I dare say not so! You see, God formed Adam for a purpose to do a job and he made him ready to do it.
And the Bible clearly states the reason for the stars - and that is to rule over the night like the sun rules over the day. He made them as tools to do a job. He didn't make them as a dating service.
So the short answer to your question is "I believe God created the stars to be seen from earth, and part of God's creation included making his newly created tool useful right away."
Does that answer your question?