Scientists Question Age of Universe

Psalm 8:3-4
“When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; what is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?”

If your measuring stick is inaccurate, you could end up with too much wallpaper or too little. If your map tells you that your destination is 200 miles away when it’s really only 50 miles away, you might drive right past it. If your map of the universe is inaccurate, and stars are a lot closer than you expect, you will arrive at the wrong age for the universe.

Most science textbooks solemnly teach that the universe is 10 to 20 billion years old. A distant galaxy in the Virgo cluster is one of the primary measuring sticks used by astronomers to figure out the distance of other objects in space. Ultimately, these distances are used to compute the age of the universe. Recently, though, astronomers were finally able to see individual stars in this distant cluster.

Using a new, high-resolution camera, astronomers saw stars that are very much like stars in our own Milky Way galaxy. Since they know how bright these stars are, they were able to check their computations on how far away the measuring-stick galaxy is. Instead of the expected 100 million light-years, their new figures told them that the galaxy was only 50 million light-years away. This means that the universe might only be half as old as they thought.

The lesson for us in this is that the millions and billions of years many scientists talk about are mere speculation. Many measuring sticks for the age of the universe are available, and many of them support an age in the biblical range of only thousands of years.

Prayer:
Father, the wondrous sky above our heads clearly shows forth Your power and might. I thank You for its beauty. Help me not to be fooled or intimidated by the claims of unbelieving scientists. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.

REF.: Virgo images suggest smaller universe. Science News, v. 139, June 15, 1991. p. 381. Photo: Milky Way – Pexel – Pixaby.com