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Index to Creationist Claims,  edited by Mark Isaak,    Copyright © 2004
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Claim CE310:

The sun is shrinking at such a rate that it would disappear completely in 100,000 years. This would make it impossibly large and hot in the distant past if the sun is millions of years old.

Source:

Morris, Henry M. 1985. Scientific Creationism. Green Forest, AR: Master Books, p. 169.

Response:

  1. This assumes that the rate of shrinkage is constant. That assumption is baseless. (In fact, it is the uniformitarian assumption that creationists themselves sometimes complain about.) Other stars expand and contract cyclically. Our own sun might do the same on a small scale.

  2. There is not even any good evidence of shrinkage. The claim is based on a single report from 1980. Other measurements, from 1980 and later, do not show any significant shrinkage. It is likely that the original report showing shrinkage contained systematic errors due to different measuring techniquies over the decades.

Links:

Johansson, Sverker, 1998. The solar FAQ. http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-solar.html

Matson, Dave E., 1994. How good are those young-earth arguments? http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/hovind/howgood-yea.html#proof1

Van Till, Howard J., 1986. The legend of the shrinking sun -- A case study comparing professional science and "creation science" in action. Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith 38(3): 164-174. http://www.asa3.org/ASA/topics/Astronomy-Cosmology/PSCF9-86VanTill.html
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created 2003-4-22, modified 2004-12-19