Science Facts? Or Science Fiction?

Dr. Jason Lisle responds to a Christian astronomer's comments regarding creationist astrononmy.

Dear LJB,

Thank you for contacting Answers in Genesis.

I am a devoted christian and an astronomer.

I’m glad to hear that. I also am a Christian and a Ph.D. astrophysicist. However, it would have helped if you had explained exactly what it is you are devoted to. Christianity by definition means devotion to Christ. And a consistent Christian would by definition be devoted to His teachings such as “Scripture cannot be broken” and that God created a human couple “from the beginning of creation” (Mark 10:6) not billions of years after a hypothetical “big bang”. Also, Jesus said that the first commandment included loving God with all our minds. However, many Christians act as if their faith is simply a matter of personal belief rather than the objective truth about the history of the universe.

Im sorry but your science facts are appalling.

It would be helpful if you had stated which facts you found appalling. In any case, facts are facts regardless of how you feel about them.

You can not deny things I have seen with my own eyes.

That’s correct. We do not deny anything that you can see with your own eyes.

e.g. The age of stars

Thank you for all you do at Answers in Genesis. I used to be an evolutionist and proud academic. I became a Christian three years ago. I needed answers to the creation question. When I got saved, I read Genesis. I was terribly confused. I was indoctrinated in believing evolution. How could my life-long beliefs be wrong? I read Genesis with the belief of a child. I came to it with no prior biblical knowledge. I read it like God intended. Literally. It wasn’t difficult to understand that God referred to literal days. He didn’t write a riddle! I took God at his word, He created the earth in six days, and then approached my questions based on historical truth. Answers in Genesis guided me through the mire of secularism. I listened to the Dr. Ross debate. It seems so clear to me that Dr. Ross is a victim of basing his beliefs in secularism and trying to bend the Word to society. It’s sad. It’s obvious to me that Satan will drive a wedge wherever he can. Christians don’t need to run around and try to respond to society! We have God’s word. There is NO other authority.

Blessings to you and your ministry.
Katie Radi
USA

Can you actually “see” the age of a star? Stars do not come with labels telling you how old they are. You might be surprised how many people I meet that mistakenly think that age can be “measured” scientifically. But age is not a “substance” that can be seen or measured by scientific methods.

Sometimes astronomers will attempt to estimate (make a guess about) the age of something (a star for example). But in order to do so they must make certain assumptions (such as how stars change with time) which cannot be directly tested. Most astronomers I know reject the Bible, and instead assume the big bang. Since they have an incorrect view of history, it causes them to make mistakes when they interpret the evidence. They see the same stars I see, but they estimate the age as much too old because they have started from the incorrect assumption that God did not make the stars.

A lot of Christians are fooled into believing in the big bang and billions of years because they think that these are “science” in the same way that physics and chemistry are (i.e., operational science that we can directly test and observe). Many Christians do not realize that the big bang is really just a story about the past that is based on untested and anti-biblical assumptions. And indeed, what happens to their elaborate schemes to fit the Bible into big bang cosmology if secular scientists reject the big bang? Already, a significant number of cosmologists do so, and complain that the big bang postulates a number of hypothetical entities and adjustable parameters that are becoming like the epicycles of Ptolemaic astronomy.

Check out the hubble space telescope images.

I use many Hubble images in my talks on astronomy. Perhaps you might enjoy my DVD Creation Astronomy—it has a large number of Hubble images. These beautiful images speak to the power and majesty of the Lord—not a big bang.

They show the various stages of stars and nebuli [sic]

It is very important to understand the difference between data and interpretation. Data are what we directly see or measure. We can directly see stars and nebulae. We see different kinds of stars—main sequence stars, giants, and supergiants for example. This is all evidence—we can observe it directly.

However, the idea that the different kinds of stars represent different “stages” is an assumption—an interpretation of the evidence. For example, many astronomers believe that main sequence stars become giant or supergiant stars when they run low on fuel. This idea might be correct, but it is not something that we see happening. No astronomer has ever seen a main sequence star turn into a giant star—ever. It is an assumption, so it might be wrong. Scientifically, we don’t know.

Christianity and science must work together it is the only way to the truth for all. As a race we are flawed in our understanding of Science and the Bible.

Science is a wonderful tool that God has given us, and it can be very powerful when it is based on correct assumptions. But often scientific ideas are found to be wrong. Science is based on our imperfect, limited minds attempting to understand the limited evidence we have of a very complex universe. Science is fallible, and this is especially so when it makes claims about the unobserved past.

[The Bible] has never been wrong, because God is never wrong.

But the Bible is not. The Bible is the authoritative, infallible Word of God. It has never been wrong, because God is never wrong. The Bible is also very clear about the “main and plain” things. God wrote it in ordinary human language so that we can understand it (cf. 2 Timothy 3:15–17). That is why it would be very foolish to try and modify the plain teaching of the Bible to fit the latest speculations of man—particularly when it comes to estimating the age of the universe. A nice little article on this is the “Parable of the Candle”.

Rather, the Bible provides the foundation for good science. Scripture gives us a correct view of history, and that will help us understand the scientific evidence that we observe in the world today.

I do not believe everything I read, but some people seem to do so.

I’m glad to hear that you don’t believe everything you read. You would be surprised how many people I meet that believe in the big bang, and billions of years just because they read it somewhere.

The only book that we can have absolute confidence in is the Bible. It has demonstrated itself time and time again to be the perfect, inerrant Word of God. That is why it is very important to check any other books we might read to make sure they line up with the Bible.

Please do not mis-lead people any more with your science fiction.

Actually, most science fiction is based on the big bang and millions of years of evolution. Indeed, the most famous sci-fi writer of all, H.G. Wells, wrote books on evolution and supported eugenics. In a way, the big bang and evolution are really science fiction, even though they are taught as fact. Here at Answers in Genesis, we expose the scientific and biblical problems with these evolutionary ideas so that people will not be misled. With all due respect, you should have followed our feedback rules about checking our site first, especially Astronomy Q&A, and against making so many unsupported assertions.