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The Stardust Trail
.
The underlying reason for space
research is to explain the origin of the stars and planets without God having
been involved. The ultimate hope is to find evidence of extraterrestrial life
somewhere, for that would prove that life could evolve anywhere — not just on
Earth. There is a lot of extraterrestrial life, of course - the Bible calls
them angels! But the astro-scientists will not find any angels with their
telescopes or space probes - neither will they find any other humans or
humanoids out there. Physical life was specially created, and Earth was created
uniquely to support that life - the stars were created for other purposes, not
yet revealed
BY HENRY M. MORRIS, PH.D.
Big Bang
cosmologists believe that our human bodies are essentially
"stardust," composed of elements generated long ago in exploding
stars which disbursed their dust into space.
The trail began
some 15 billion years ago in the primeval Big Bang, which first produced simple
chemical elements, then eventually stars and galaxies and planets and people
through aeons of evolution.
This idea is not
scientific.
Scientists have
never observed stars or planets evolve, so such ideas are essentially based on
naturalistic speculation supported mostly by esoteric mathematics, so they are
not scientific, by definition.
As far as the stars
are concerned, Abraham Loeb (of the Harvard University Center for Astrophysics)
has frankly acknowledged that scientists do not know how they formed.
The truth is that
we don't understand star formation at a fundamental level.
The most favored
theory at present is that the Big Bang explosion generated the simple elements
hydrogen and helium, which eventually coalesced into the first simple stars.
These stars, known
as Type-3 Stars, did not include any complex elements.
The latter had to
be generated when some of this first group of stars exploded as supernovas.
From the resulting
stardust evolved more complex stars and eventually planets and people.
The problem is
that, out of the billions upon billions of stars in the observable universe,
there do not seem to be any Type-3 Stars at all.
The first
generation of stars likely formed when the universe was only a few million
years old (though these Population III stars have not yet been identified).
It seems like we
should see plenty of them if they ever existed, since all the other stars
supposedly keep coming from them.
Be that as it may,
we are more interested in our sun with its solar system.
There have been
various theories of the evolution of the planets and their satellites, as well
as the comets and asteroids.
Most of these
theories have encountered insuperable obstacles, so that the current theory (of
last resort, actually) is a set of catastrophic theories based on multiple
impacts of various rock bodies.
The moon (to take a
"close to home" example) is said to have originated in a gigantic
impact on Earth.
Many models have
been proposed for the formation of the Moon, but no one has succeeded in showing
the formation satisfactorily.
The popular
"giant impact" model states that a Mars-sized protoplanet hit the
proto-Earth and generated a circumterrestrial debris disk from which the Moon
accreted.
While this theory
may have fewer problems than others, it appears extremely imaginative and quite
incapable of proof. Furthermore, it does encounter one serious difficulty.
However, no
reasonable means to rid the Earth/Moon system of the excess angular momentum
has yet been proposed.
One scientist in
this field seems about ready to give up hope that the origin of the moon can
ever be explained, not to mention the other planets and satellites.
All in all,
developing a theory of lunar origins that could make sense of data obtained
from the Apollo lunar landing programme proved very difficult.
So much so, in
fact, that when I took a class on our planetary system from Irvin Shapiro two
decades ago, he joked that the best explanation was observational error — the
moon did not exist.
The comets orbiting
the sun present another problem. These bodies lose considerable mass at every
pass around the sun. They cannot survive many orbits, and thus cannot be very
old.
To get around this
problem, evolutionists assume there is a vast cloud of hibernating comets out
near the edge of the solar system, which releases new comets every so often.
This imaginary
cloud is called the "Oort Cloud," named after the astronomer who
proposed it. The problem is that there is no observational evidence such a
cloud exists at all.
We have never
actually "seen" the Oort Cloud . . .
We infer the
existence and properties of the Oort Cloud . . . from
. . . the steady trickle of long-period comets into the planetary
system.
The underlying reason for space research is to explain the origin
of the stars and planets without God having been involved.
The ultimate hope is to find evidence of extraterrestrial
life somewhere, for that would prove, they say, that life could evolve anywhere
— not just on Earth.
One hope is to
locate some type of nonrandom radio signals from the stars.
Very elaborate
radio telescopes have been built and monitored for years hoping to catch them.
But this effort has been a waste of much money.
. . . scientists
are systematically scrutinizing a thousand nearby sun-like stars for the faint
signal that would betray intelligent habitation.
So far, they have
found nothing — not a single extraterrestrial peep. . . we are,
to our knowledge, still alone in a vast cosmos.
Nevertheless, NASA
is still hoping to find some evidence of extraterrestrial life — if not human
life on some far-off planet, then at least microbial life on a nearby planet.
The only candidate
remaining in the solar system is Mars.
Although Mars seems
to be devoid of any life at all, they still are searching for evidence that it
used to be there.
Two years ago, NASA
generated global publicity by announcing they had found such evidence — a
Martian rock with fossilized bacteria that had somehow traveled to Earth and
landed in Antarctica.
This claim has been
well debunked by now.
Eighteen months
after David S. McKay and his colleagues . . . raised eyebrows
with their claim . . . the team has made few
converts . . . its critics have published dozens of new
observations they believe make that theory increasingly improbable. . . .
On the other hand,
this sensational claim of Martian life has been immensely successful in one
sense.
Scientists now
working on . . . the possibility of extraterrestrial life are
funded at levels that two years ago would have been unimaginable.
Had NASA's
publicity machine not turned McKay's paper into a global media event, this
largesse would never have been granted.
What is NASA up to?
Two years ago, the agency thought it had discovered life on Mars and set the
world ablaze with talk of a Universe populated by aliens.
Now it has
discovered water on the moon and the world is already planning holidays at
lunar resorts. . . .
But we should not
be cynical. NASA needs periodic blazes of publicity to keep the U.S. Congress
interested in funding space exploration.
The most recent
NASA project has been the widely publicized adventure of sending an ex-senator
and ex-astronaut (now 77 years old) back on a space mission, ostensibly to
research the effects of space travel on the aging process.
The public-relations
boost for NASA has again been enormous.
There is a lot of extraterrestrial life, of course. The Bible
calls them angels!
These are specially created beings "sent forth to
minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation" (Hebrews 1:14).
But the astro-scientists will not find any angels with
their telescopes or space probes. Neither will they find any other humans or
humanoids out there.
Physical life was specially created, and Earth was created
uniquely to support that life.
The stars were created for other purposes, not yet
revealed.
"The heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD'S: but
the earth hath He given to the children of men" (Psalm 115:16).
Evolutionary
scientists would be well advised to "hit the sawdust trail" that
leads to Christ and forget about the imaginary stardust trail that they think
led to life.
* Dr. Morris is Founder and President
Emeritus of ICR.
The
Institute for Creation Research (ICR) wants people to know that God’s Word
can be trusted in everything it speaks about—from how and why we were made, to
how the universe was formed, to how we can know God and receive all He has
planned for us.
After
50 years of ministry, ICR remains a leader in scientific research within the
context of biblical creation. Founded by Dr. Henry Morris in 1970, ICR exists
to conduct scientific research within the realms of origins and Earth history,
and then to educate the public both formally and informally through
professional training programs, through conferences and seminars around the
country, and through books, magazines, and media presentations.
