by Bill Nugent
Article #208
Secular people, who believe in evolution, claim that the earth has existed about 4.5 billion years since it’s formation. This assumed old age of earth is to allow for the hundreds of millions of years for evolution to take place, to evolve microbes into human beings.
I will show you, using scientific evidence in harmony with the laws of physics, that the Earth is less than 10,000 years old. If earth is that young, there is insufficient time for evolution to build life. This would clearly refute the theory of evolution and affirm the need for the Creator of life.
The biblical timeline infers the age of planet Earth is thousands, not billions of years. I’m aware that there are many theologians who claim that there are long ages of time implied in various passages of Genesis or they attempt to allegorize the creation account. They do this to try to gain scientific respectability and conform with secular science. They need not be concerned. True science affirms young earth.
Earth’s Magnetic Field is Weakening
There are many proofs for a young age of earth but one of my favorites has to do with the steady, measurable, decay rate of the earth’s magnetic field. It has been calculated that the earth’s magnetic field loses half of its strength over a time period of about 1,400 years. This means that in the year AD 626 the earth’s magnetic field was about twice as strong as it is today.*
First, let me briefly explain what magnetism is. The nucleus of every atom is magnetically charged. Every atom is a magnet. Since atoms are all jumbled together and their magnetic poles face in all different directions, the magnetic charges of all the atoms cancel each other out.
The way to make a magnet is to line up the atoms in a block of iron so their poles all face in the same direction. It takes energy to do this and the form of energy that will do this is electricity. Magnetism and electricity are interrelated. Electricity can induce a magnetic field and a magnetic field can induce an electric current.
All magnetic fields decay over time. Even the magnets holding papers on your refrigerator lose strength very slowly over time. As I write this I’m holding in one hand a very powerful industrial magnet. This magnet will lose about 3% of its strength in 125 years. That doesn’t sound like a very rapid loss of power but when we start to talk about thousands of years we begin to see that magnetic fields eventually decay to almost no strength at all.
The Magnetic Field Protects Planet Earth
The earth has a magnetic field that has been studied and measured by scientists for centuries. If the earth had no magnetic field life would not be possible. Without a magnetic field, energetically charged particles from the sun would hammer the earth and burn out every living organism. With the earth’s magnetic field in place, the sun’s coronal mass ejection particles are deflected away from earth.
Scientists early on proposed that the core of the earth was like a giant iron magnet. Later this was rejected because the temperature of the inner earth is far too high, well above 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit, and far above the curie point above which solid state magnetism is no longer sustainable. It is apparent therefore that the earth’s magnetic field is induced by an electric current which is circulating through the molten outer core (mantle) of the earth.
How Did the Magnetic Field Begin?
The question for scientists is: “how did this electric charge start and how is it sustained?” It is safe to assume that the electric charge and the induced magnetic field was in the earth at the time of its formation. Secular scientists believe the the earth and other planets formed from dust and gases circulating around the sun that clumped together. This is the nebular hypothesis. Creationists claim the nebular hypothesis contradicts some laws of physics.
Nuclear physicist D. Russell Humphreys, Ph. D. proposed that the electrical charge that induced the magnetic field was induced in the outer core of the earth at the time of the earth’s creation. The magnetic field is sustained by the movement of molten metals in the outer core of earth. This movement or convection of metals slows down over time and the magnetic field decays. Dr. Humphreys is a creationist and believes God created the earth.
The decay rate is measurable and has been measured for centuries all over the world. It is clearly showing an exponential decay rate of magnetic field strength. An exponential decay rate is much faster than a linear decay rate.
Dr. Humphreys and physics professor, Dr. Thomas Barnes have extrapolated back in time using the known exponential decay rate of the earth’s magnetic field and found that the earth could not possibly be more than 10,000 years old. If the magnetic field were much older than this, the beginning magnetic field would have been so strong that the induced electric charge and the heat generated from the electrical resistance would have so superheated the earth that the earth’s crust would have remained in a molten state and no life possible.
Reversals of Earth’s Magnetic Field Polarity
The Humphreys magnetic field model not only explains the observable decay rate of the field but also explains the frequent rapid reversals in magnetic polarity that have been recorded in geological rock strata throughout the earth. The earth’s magnetic field is induced by the constant flow of an electric current and when this current reverses direction then the polarity of the field reverses and the poles are reversed and your compass would point south.
According to the Humphreys model, when a continental plate of the earth’s crust descends into the core of the earth as in plate subduction during a huge earthquake, it can alter the polarity of earth’s magnetic field. The cooler material that descends into the outer core will change the direction of the inner earth’s molten magma and this change of direction of the molten magma conductor will change the direction of the flow of the electric current and thus change the magnetic field polarity. This is in conformity with all known laws of physics.
The Sun’s Magnetic Field
Incidentally this also explains how the sun’s magnetic field polarity rapidly reverses every eleven years during sunspot activity. On the sun, cooler outer gases flow into the sun’s interior and change the direction of the sun’s electric current and hence change the direction of the polarity of the sun’s induced magnetic field.
The Humphreys magnetic field model is clear, concise and conforms to all known laws of physics. The readily measurable decay rate of the earth’s magnetic field gives a top limit on the age of the earth of less than 10,000 years. This compelling evidence for young earth has not gone unnoticed by evolutionists who are presuppositionally committed to a 4.5 billion year age for earth.
The Dynamo Theory
The old earth evolutionists have proposed what is called the dynamo theory which is the idea that the electric current that induces the earth’s magnetic field is constantly generated by the movement of hot liquid metals in the earth’s interior. In other words they argue that the earth’s core acts like a giant electric generator.
Let me briefly explain how a generator works. In an electric generator a conductor composed of copper wire wrapped around soft iron is made to spin inside a wheel made of hard iron magnets. This interaction of conductor and magnetic field causes all the electrons to flow in the same direction in the conductor, hence an electric current is generated. This electric current can in turn be used to induce a magnetic field.
It has been demonstrated in the lab that churning molten metals together can act like a crude generator and induce an electric current and a magnetic field.
The dynamo theory, first proposed by Walter Elsasser (1904-1991) in the 1940s, has grown ever more complex and unwieldy over the decades as it has had to be hammered and modified to compensate for inconvenient facts that should have caused any open-minded scientist to reject the theory outright.
How Can a Magnetic Field Sustain Itself for 4.5 Billion Years?
Remember, secular evolutionists are presuppositionally committed to a 4.5 billion year age of earth to allow for evolution of plants and animals. The problems with the dynamo theory in dealing with old age of earth are many. A planet such as earth with no fusion in it’s core will surely cool off in a fraction of 4.5 billion years.
The planet Mars, smaller than earth, has already cooled and its core is solid. Molten metals don’t circulate in its inner or outer core. It has no magnetic field except for small remnants of magnetism in areas of its crust. Solar winds have swept away the Martian atmosphere.
A problem for the dynamo theory is where does the energy come from to cause the trillions of tons of molten material in the inner earth to flow at the rate needed to generate electricity?
The molten metals of the inner earth are under enormous pressure and this would overwhelmingly cause the molten magma to slow down over time. Volcanoes are explosions in the crust and are not considered a significant cause of electric dynamo magnetic field generation.
A subduction of part of the earth’s crust would cause a disturbance near the surface and would alter the direction of the flow of the electric current but generate very little new electrical current. Other mechanisms have been proposed such as chemical differences between inner core and outer core, gravitational effects of nearby objects such as the moon or most popularly, temperature differences in materials causing convectional flow. Secular scientists admit that most such mechanisms are either of negligible effect or would be difficult or impossible to sustain over long ages of time.
In my research over the internet I read one geologist’s lament that we may never know how the dynamo works. He suggested that an an advanced form of artificial intelligence may someday solve the riddle.
A dynamo is a precisely designed piece of machinery. To say that the inner earth has just the right calibration and flow rate of material to generate just the right amount of electricity to induce a magnetic field of just the right strength and remain within a life-on-earth sustaining range for millions of years is an absurd stretch of credulity. It’s just another example of the lengths to which some individuals will go in order to deny the plain facts that point to the young age of earth, the falsity of evolution and the necessity of the Creator
Many Scientists Reject Darwinian Evolution
Many scientists are becoming proponents of the Intelligent Design Movement. They are convinced that there must be an intelligent designer of living things. These scientists hesitate to call themselves creationists because they would immediately be accused of being driven by religious motives and their scientific credentials would be questioned by their secular evolutionist colleagues.
Many scientists who believe in intelligent design and have rejected the Darwinian evolution hypothesis have gone so far as to publicly sign a statement online at the website dissentfromdarwin.org that states that they are skeptical of Darwinian evolution as a theory that could account for the complexity of life.
People are Taking a New Look at Christianity
God provided for forgiveness of sins by sending Jesus Christ who came in fulfillment of over 300 Old Testament prophecies. The biblical prophets foretold that Christ would suffer and die, taking upon Himself the penalty we deserved for our sins. This is called substitutionary atonement.
One Old Testament prophet wrote of Christ: “He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, And by His scourging we are healed” (Isaiah 53:5 NASB, written over 700 years before the birth of Christ).
After He paid the penalty for our sins, Christ was raised from the dead to offer forgiveness of sins to all who call upon Him. I invite you to turn to Christ today to receive forgiveness of sins!
*My source for much of this article is “The Earth’s Magnetic Field and the Age of the Earth” by Dr. Andrew A. Snelling 9/1/1991 at answersingenesis.org.
Steps to salvation:
Jesus said “Ye must be born again” (John 3:7).
Prayer to receive salvation:
“Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Romans 10:13).
To receive the salvation that Jesus purchased for us at the terrible cost of His suffering and death on our behalf I invite you to pray this simple prayer:
“Dear heavenly Father, I thank you for sending Jesus, the promised Messiah, to die for my sins. I admit that I am a sinner. I repent of my sins and I ask for your forgiveness on the basis of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. I ask you to fill me with your Holy Spirit to empower me to serve you under the Lordship of Jesus Christ, Amen.”
If you prayed this prayer in the humble sincerity of your heart then you have received everlasting life, which includes power to live right in this life and entrance into heaven in the afterlife!