Starlight problem

The Starlight problem is a problem concerning the starlight we see coming from distant stars and galaxies. For example, if the universe is 6,000 - 12,000 years old, as some young-earth creationists believe, how do we see light coming from galaxies that are 13 billion light-years away or more? (The galaxy Abell 1835 IR1916 is believed to be 13.23 billion light-years away from us.)

Some creationists admit this is as big a problem for creationism as the “missing link” has been for evolution. One possible explanation for seeing galaxies that are billions of light-years away is that God created the light “in-transit”, so that people can enjoy seeing and discovering the distant wonders of the universe at the present time. This "aged-earth" line of reasoning fits with those who believe Adam and Eve were created as adults, or at least teenagers - the reasoning being that if they were created as newborns or children, they would probably not have survived.

The problem with the “in-transit” theory is that if it is true, the events that astronomers are now seeing that happened at vast distances away from us never actually happened. For example, in 1987 astronomers observed a supernova – an exploding star - approximately 170,000 light-years away from the earth (SN 1987A). They also observed all the expected data that one receives when a star explodes, such as gamma-rays and X-rays – in addition to the visible light. This would indicate they were observing an actual event. If the universe is only 10,000 years old, however, what they saw did not actually happen as the data suggested. It would imply that the data of the events were put in the beam of light at a later time, or at the moment of creation, of an event that did not actually happen.

The Starlight problem is also a problem for orthodox cosmology models - there is not enough time for light to have travelled from one end of the universe to the other, but that is explained by modern theories on the expansion on the universe: see big bang Another theory used in discussion of the starlight problem is that the speed of light has not always remained the same since the creation of the universe, but there is not currently enough scientific evidence to support this theory.

Dr Russell Humphreys, a nuclear physicist, has written a book called "Starlight and Time", which attempts to explain the starlight problem to the lay person along with his ideas of how a young earth can fit in with the distant starlight problem.