Distant Starlight: Our Conversation with Dr. Danny R. Faulkner

What is distant starlight?

Distances in astronomy are huge. Excluding the sun, the nearest star is 26 trillion miles away. That number is so large that most people are unable to comprehend it. There are other ways to express distance, such as in terms of travel time, assuming some standard speed of travel. For instance, I live about five hours from Chicago. In a similar manner, we can express astronomical distances in terms of how long it would take light to travel those tremendous distances. Light takes nearly one and a half seconds to reach us from the moon. The sun is a little more than eight light minutes away. The nearest star is over four light years away. Distant starlight is just a term that recognizes the huge distance for light to travel from stars.

How do we know that some galaxies are so far away?

Astronomers have good reasons to believe that galaxies are far away. The closest galaxy of any significant size is M31, the Andromeda Galaxy. There are many individual stars and other objects that we see in M31 that look like objects in our own galaxy, the Milky Way. The only difference is that the objects in M31 are much fainter. We can measure the distances of the similar objects in the Milky Way and then use our knowledge of how light diminishes with increasing distance (the inverse square law) to figure out how far away M31 is. It turns out that M31 is over two million light years away. Comparison of the same sort of objects in other galaxies shows that those galaxies are even farther away.

Why do evolutionists believe that distant starlight proves the earth is old?

Most stars we see at night are, at most, a few hundred light years away. But galaxies typically are millions, even billions, of light years away. Evolutionists believe that, if light has always traveled at the same speed, then these large distances suggest that the universe must be billions of years old for us to see galaxies that are billions of light years away.

How do biblical creationists address the distant starlight question?

Keep in mind that a light year is a unit of distance, not time. That is, if a galaxy is two million light years away, does that necessarily mean the light we see has been traveling for this long? Creationists have proposed various solutions to the light travel time problem. One possibility is that God miraculously and rapidly brought light to earth when he created astronomical bodies on day four of creation week. This would be consistent with the way God created mature plants on day three, as well as animals on days five and six, so that they could fulfill their functions. In a similar manner, astronomical bodies could not fulfill their appointed purposes unless their light was visible right away.

Why is distant starlight seen as such an obstacle to trusting what God’s Word says about a young universe?

Many people think that it seems deceptive of God to have made astronomical bodies that are much farther away than could be seen within the implied light travel time distance because it may imply a history that never happened. But this overlooks the miraculous nature of creation. For instance, we don’t observe life coming from nonliving things, but the creation account describes God creating man from the dust.

Everything about creation week was miraculous. If one grasps the immensity of the universe, along with its mass and energy, one begins to understand the immensity of God. Compared to the creation of the universe, getting the light to earth in a very short time is a rather trivial problem.

What do creationists learn when we face mysteries like this?

We learn that man does not have all the answers. We can trust what God has revealed, including that the world is young. God is pleased when we study his Word and his creation to find answers to these kinds of questions. But God did not reveal to us everything there is to know about creation, such as why the universe is so large or how he brought the light of all parts of the universe to earth on day four. Proverbs 25:2 says, “It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out.” Part of man’s dominion mandate is to search out and learn about God’s creation.

A creation model of astronomy is in its infancy. I hope that some young people reading this may be inspired to study astronomy as a profession with the goal of developing a creation model of astronomy.

When creationists don’t have a definite answer, how can we keep from being shaken in our faith?

Our understanding of God and his actions is very limited. We can study these things as much as we want, but there are many things we can’t fully understand. For instance, why did God love us so much that he sent his only Son to atone for our sins? Believers may have questions here on earth, but we can look forward to spending eternity with our infinite God and learning more about him. In the meantime, we need to be careful that we hold fast to God’s Word and hold the words of men—even godly men—loosely. God’s Word is our authority.