Evidence: Light Speed Decays with Time

The first piece of evidence virtually any evolutionist will site to support the idea that the universe is very old is the time required for light to travel from distant stars to our earth.  Since the speed of light is 299,792 km/sec.[1] the time for light to travel from distant galaxies would be billions of years in most cases. 

Yet as we will see, this evidence is not the proverbial nail in the coffin of the Scriptures’ credibility as old-universe advocates would want you to believe.

There is evidence that the speed of light is decreasing with time, otherwise known as “c-decay,” which if left unaccounted for would give the universe the appearance of being much older than it actually is.  It must be stressed here that c-decay has been observed unlike the idea of “dark matter.”  The idea that c-decay exists is based upon all available observable evidence.

Interestingly, there are many theoretical problems in cosmology that would be resolved if the speed of light were millions of times faster in the past.[2]  For example, there is something in cosmology called “the horizontal problem,” which recognizes that opposite extremes of the universe have the same temperatures, which is an unexpected coincidence but is not necessarily a problem if the speed of light were much faster in the past, allowing heat exchange to occur more rapidly.[3]
 

The first known measurement of the speed of light occurred in 1673 by Ole Roemer, who made use of the technological advances in accurate time-keeping to measure the time it took Jupiter’s moon IO to make a complete orbit.  Roemer noted that as the earth moved away from Jupiter, the elapsed time of IO’s orbit increased, yet later in earth’s orbit, as the earth moved toward Jupiter, the elapsed time of IO’s orbit seemed to decrease.  Roemer deduced that the difference was due to the differing times it took light to travel from Jupiter to the earth.  Roemer used his measurements of the perceived elapsed time of IO’s orbit to calculate the speed of light and determined it to be 317,700 km/sec in his day.[4]

Since Roemer’s day, the experiment has been repeated using the same techniques yielding the following results, which clearly indicate a c-decay trend.[5] 

M.E.J. Gheury d Bray, in 1927, was probably the first to propose a decreasing speed of light.  He based his conclusion on measurements spanning 75 years.  Later, he became more convinced and twice published his results in Nature, possibly the most prestigious scientific journal in the world at the time.  He emphasized, “If the velocity of light is constant, how is it that, invariably, new determinations five values which are lower than the last one obtained.  There are twenty-two coincidences in favor of a decrease of the velocity of light, while there is not a single one against it.”[6] 

Today, Australian Astronomer and Physicist Barry Setterfield researches c-decay and has plotted the change in the rate of decay.  Of all the c-decay curves matched to the existing data, one curve stood out in his calculations, as it indicated the point in time at which the speed of light approached infinity denoting the supposed origin of the universe.  This point in time was just before 4000 B.C.[7]  Of course, to those who affirm the credibility of the Scriptures, this date will come as no surprise.

Setterfield’s work has its critics even within the ranks of creationist scientists, yet even his critics admit that his work reveals some interesting, mostly one-sided trends and merits additional experimentation.[8]  It is also curious to note the nervous reaction of academics when they are faced with the question of c-decay.[9]  Could it be that they realize that evidence for c-decay could have negative implications to their evolutionist worldview?  I suspect so!

The point to keep in mind here is that if we have evidence that the speed of light has slowed with time, then it could very well be that in the speed of light has decreased tremendously over the past several thousand years, and as such, light from distant galaxies may have required a much shorter time to reach us in the past.  Why should we assume that light from distant galaxies has always required billions of years to reach us?  Yet, this is precisely the assumption that Wilhelm Leber and evolutionists demand that we subscribe to when they boldly claim that the universe must be billions of years old because of the speed of light.  They are reaching this conclusion based on an assumption that the speed of light has always been constant, as assumption that the data thus far certainly calls into question. 

Again, we must reach our conclusions based on all of the evidence.  To reach correct conclusions, contradicting evidences must be resolved.  Therefore, it is dangerously imprudent to assume that our Creator is lying when His recorded words reveal that the entire universe is not more that several thousand years old.  I, for one, do not want it recorded that I ever implied that our Creator is lying.  Certainly, it is possible that I have done so during my upbringing in the NAC, yet I certainly would not want to leave such mistakes uncorrected; I simply do not want that on my conscience.  Wilhelm Leber however seems not to be bothered by such concerns, sadly.