Creation ex nihilo and Distant Galaxies

The most shocking observation made by Galileo was that there

were moons that orbited the other planets. This demolished the geocentric model

of the universe which was based on the notion that the universe was ordered in

“perfect” shapes- circles and spheres.

  Later improvements in telescope design allowed us to

discover there are other galaxies, and in the 1920s we learned that these

galaxies were extremely distant and all moving apart. This was based on two

sorts of observations, the red-shift of hydrogen spectral lines, and the

measurement of the light intensity of supernova.   The conclusion that there had to have been an original event in

which the entire mass of the universe was in an infinitesimal point was

dismissed as the “big bang theory” by Fred Hoyle. While the name stuck,   Hoyle was wrong in his rejection of the

idea. The most recent test of the theory was the detailed mapping of the cosmic

microwave background radiation- the energy echo of the Big Bang. The Wilkinson

Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) is a NASA space telescope project measuring

this background radiation. The WMAP scientists have made many discoveries, but

the one most significant for the current discussion is that the origin of the

universe occurred 13.7 billion years ago.

Creationists have proposed several excuses to avoid these

results. The two most common are that God created the light “in transit” so as

to make the universe look old, and the second is that the speed of light and

other physical constants such as radioactive decay rates are rapidly changing.

Why that is impossible will be addressed separately.