6.3 Creationist Cosmologies
Several attempts have been made by creationists to construct a cosmology consistent with a young universe. The primary challenge for young-universe cosmologies is that the accepted distances in the universe require millions or billions of years for light to travel to Earth.
An older creationist idea, proposed by creationist astronomer Barry Setterfield, is that the speed of light has decayed in the history of the universe. More recently, creationist physicist Russell Humphreys has proposed a theory called “white hole cosmology” which suggests that the universe expanded out of a white hole less than 10,000 years ago; the apparent age of the universe results from relativistic effects.
Cosmology is not as widely discussed as creation biology or flood geology, for several reasons. First, many creationists, particularly old earth creationists and Intelligent Design theorists, do not dispute that the universe may be billions of years old.
Also, a number of creationists who believe that life was created in the timeframe described in a literal interpretation of Genesis are open to the possibility that there may have been multiple cataclysms and creations, or a lifeless Earth, prior to the Edenic creation.
6.3.1 Planetology
Evidences are claimed by creationists to prove that the age of the solar system is of the order of thousands of years. Commonly used arguments relate to the numbers of comets and the recession of the moon from the Earth. They have been refuted by planetologists. In response to increasing evidence suggesting that Mars once possessed a wetter climate, some creation scientists have proposed that the global flood affected not only the Earth but also Mars and other planets.
An ongoing problem for creationists is the presence of impact craters on nearly all solar system objects, which is consistent with scientific explanations of solar system origins, but creates insuperable problems for young Earth claims. Some creationist astronomers assert that meteoritic bombardment of the solar system occurred during creation week and during the subsequent “Great Flood.
6.3.2 Geophysics
Young Earth creationists make a number of claims in the field of geophysics, mostly related to flood geology and the age of the Earth. The overwhelming scientific consensus is that these claims have no scientific basis.
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