If the Earth is only 6000 years old, how do we see light from stars that are over a billion light years away?

Question

It should take over a billion years for their light to reach the Earth for us to see, should it not?

"While light from the Sun takes only about eight minutes to reach Earth, the farthest stars are so distant that their light takes billions of years to reach Earth."
http://encarta.msn.com/encnet/refpages/refarticle.aspx?refid=761557483

Yes, I DO believe in God and the Bible.

Is it possible that the interoretation of the 6 day creation is wrong?

Is it possible that what is listed as days in Gen 1 are something other than 6, 24 hour periods?

- interpretation - (above)

Noelana (below) Disagree.

Man has used light AND radio waves to calculate distances very accurately. This is how we send probes to Jupiter and to crash into an asteroid (recently). If these distance calculations were off, we would miss these space objects by hundreds of thousands of miles.
.

Answer 1

The Earth is millions of years old..

Answer 2

God, and hence the Bible, does NOT say the earth is only 6000 years old.

That 6000 years is derived from an ASSUMPTION of what the Bible says. So, it is not the interpretation of the days of "Creation Week" that is off -- they are normal 24-hour-days.

The assumption is that God created man and all the beasts immediately upon (at the same time as) he created the universe.

A very interesting footnote is added to the New International Version of the Bible, that can shed some light on the issue.

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was {Footnote: or possibly BECAME} formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

With this understanding, that the earth BECAME the waste and empty place AFTER God had created the universe. There is a gap in the history of creation.

Other parts of the Bible show that Satan's rebellion occurred during this gap, and that it was he who laid waste to the earth. The gap is apparently billions of years wide. The scientific estimate of the age of the universe is correct. But a day is still a day in Genesis 1.

About 6000 years ago, God repaired the mess, and created man; he did all that in 6 literal, 24-hour days. And that gave us the 7-day week. Our week isn't billions of years long, now is it?
.

Answer 3

Now, there is the problem. What are you gonna believe? That the earth is 6000 years old?

Or that science is chipping away at the story of the bible?

Now, I'm in the 'unsure' camp (like to hedge my bets) but my gf is a devout christian. I, however, like to generally take the 'proven' scientific approach. Which at one time 'proved' that the earth was flat.
And how do you 'evolve' an eye? It's either an eye or it's not. There can be no midway evolutionary stage, so that kinda points to intelligent design.....by whom? (don't even start me on the scientology freaks)

So, I'm in limbo and have not really answered your question.

Therefore, the earth 'could' have been made 6000 years ago but the other stars, planets, systems, etc, 'could' have been made billions of light years ago.

Answer 4

2 school thought here.

1. When God created the heavens and the earth, all the stars and vast universe was created in a flash.

"1In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

2And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

3And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

4And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

5And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.

6And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

7And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.

8And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day. "

Gen 1.

2. The world is not 6000 years old. It was created over billions of years. To God a billion years is a second and a second a billion years. God is beyond time and space. Thus the measurement of time is unfathamable by mere man.

Answer 5

1) The earth is way older than 6,000 years old. It's almost as old as those stars you're asking about.

2) What you see is relative. If a tree falls in the woods, does it make a noise? Same idea, different set of parameters. The billion light year away star has been streaming light for a long time, it has been there since before our planet was formed. Unless the star dies out before our plant sees the light, you'll witness it's twinkling.

Answer 6

It all boils down to if you take someone else's word on something or do you test it yourself. The earth may be that old, older, or newer, how can anyone know, no one is 6 thousand years old nor has anyone gone to that other star to see how far away it really is. We just don't have long enough lives to test these things, which is why we make theories that comfort our wandering minds and hope we are at least remotely correct. We may never know, honestly, but atleast the stars do shine at night and the beautiful sun graces our days.

Answer 7

chi guy, another top contributor, you should know Job 38, for even dan brown used this particular verse in his work of fiction called the da vinci code, to support the feminist hate machine,..and you should know that in God's infinite wisdom has He laid the foundations and spread forth the heaven and all thing celestial,..and science for the most part play on the banks of d Nile,..the Bible is inerrant as written to usward, kjv preferred,..thus, thou shouldest question not the Word, which was from the beginning and became flesh by His omniscience,..

and i just spoke with a muslim from russia and he knows i m christian and we are both alive,..must do my job first then questions can be answered,..

it is good to know that you and beachbum are not the same,..

forgive the edit but the sun, moon and stars were created on the fourth day, for all you evolutionites,..

i e a e,..
avatar of the unification,..

Answer 8

Photons are released in pairs - and are subjective. Think of a star as basically a big circle, and the photons as things radiating from that circle, paired, and going in a straight line. They don't do that, and the proof is that if they all went in a straight line from a point that far away, they would miss our eyes. Even with photons being as tiny as they are, the chances of a constant stream of pairs of them hitting our eyes at that distance at the exact moment we look at them are so small, only GOD can explain it. Want proof? Look at a different star - as many times as you want, and realize the odds keep going down for random chance. The photons are directed to our eyes. The stars that far away released photons BILLIONS of years ago simply to hit your eye when you look at them. Random chance? I think not.

Answer 9

Congredulation, you are one of the smart ones. I believe in God and Koran, but like you I don't believe earth or even human being is 6000 years old. It doesn't take a genius to figure that out. You just have to be little smarter than George Bush

Answer 10

No where in the Bible will you find it suggested that the universe is only 6000 years old, just our earth age. You want to know how old the universe is find out how old is God.

Answer 11

does it take eight minutes for the light from the sun to reach earth ? does it take billions of years for other stars? are you just seeing the light, or has it already made it here? when man first went to the moon, by scientific calculation the dust on the moon should have been about 40 feet deep. since it had been collecting there for billions of years. however when they got there it was only about three inches. about 6000 years worth.