Claim CH370:
The creation model predicts galaxies constant and stars unchanging, in the
main. They may decay, but they were created entire and did not build up
over time.
Source:
Morris, Henry M., 1974. Scientific Creationism, Green Forest, AR: Master
Books, pp. 13,24-25.
Response:
- The claim is baseless. The formation of stars takes on the order of
millions of years, so we cannot expect to see major changes as we watch,
but that does not mean the stars are unchanging.
Given our knowledge of physical laws and our observations of stars and
interstellar matter, we expect star formation to be occurring
continuously, as molecular clouds form and condense. And we see
molecular clouds, protostars, and young stars in all stages of
formation, in close agreement with what we expect (Pudritz 2002;
Ward-Thompson 2002).
The existence of stars with differing amounts of heavy elements is also
in good agreement with star formation over time, since the heavy
elements come only from supernovae of earlier stars.
- Galaxies have changed over time, too. Quasars were more common in the
earlier universe; there are no recent ones. We also see galaxies in
various stages of colliding.
References:
- Pudritz, Ralph E. 2002. Clustered star formation and the origin of
stellar masses. Science 295: 68-76.
- Ward-Thompson, Derek. 2002. Isolated star formation: From cloud
formation to core collapse. Science 295: 76-81. (See also related
articles in the same issue.)
created 2003-7-11
