The apparent conflict between the age of stars being billions of years old and the earth being only thousands of years old according to the Bible has confused many. At first glance, it may seem incompatible that light from stars billions of lightyears away has reached earth if the earth is only thousands of years old. However, by examining what the Bible actually says about the age of the universe, there are reasonable explanations that resolve this perceived discrepancy.
First, it’s important to understand the basis for believing the earth is thousands rather than billions of years old. There are genealogies in Scripture, such as Genesis 5 and 11, that if taken at face value allow us to date the age of the earth to around 6,000 years. Exodus 20:11 states that “in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth”, pointing to a literal 6 day creation week. While there are some interpretive differences amongst Christians regarding the age of the earth, there are good reasons to take the Bible at face value on this topic.
At the same time, modern astronomy clearly indicates that light from distant stars must be millions or billions of years old. Spectral studies of starlight provide information about the chemical composition, movement, distance and age of various celestial objects. So how can these vastly different timescales be reconciled? Here are several possibilities that Christians have proposed based on the Biblical text:
1. God created a mature universe
When God created the earth, it was not created as an infant planet but as a mature world with an appearance of age. Adam and Eve were created as mature adults, not infants. In the same way, when God created the stellar heavens, he could have formed them with the appearance of age. Light from distant stars was visible from earth from the moment of creation, even though the stars themselves were only days old. So while the light itself is not billions of years old, God created it already stretched across space so that the stars appeared fully formed and ancient.
2. Time dilation during creation week
Einstein’s theory of relativity demonstrates that time passes at different rates depending on velocity and gravitational effects. During the six literal 24-hour creation days on earth, billions of years could have advanced in the distant cosmos due to gravitational time dilation effects. From God’s eternal perspective outside of time and space, he created the earth in six days but also formed the rest of the universe in the same time frame. So starlight itself really is billions of years old, however the actual creation days on earth were 24 hour periods.
3. Hyper-acceleration of cosmic processes
God could have created a functional, mature universe in six days by exponentially speeding up all cosmic processes during the creation week. Just as God hyper-accelerated biological growth to enable food sources like fruit trees to survive immediately after creation, so too stellar processes like nuclear fusion, light emission, star collapse, etc could have been drastically sped up so that billions of years worth of starlight reached earth in a matter of days.
4. Cosmic center of mass
The center of mass of the cosmos may be near earth’s location in the Milky Way galaxy. Gravitational time dilation effects are strongest when approaching an extremely massive object. So six literal days on earth were also billions of years for distant galaxies moving at high velocities relative to earth’s central galactic location. Special relativity combined with earth’s presumed central position accounts for starlight visible from earth’s frame of reference.
5. Alternate synchrony conventions in general relativity
There are mathematical conventions used to define synchrony of clocks in different locations in the universe. Alterations in synchrony conventions could allow distant starlight to reach earth instantly on day four of creation. For example, changing the one-way speed of light to be anisotropic rather than isotropic during creation week. Though light travels at a constant speed locally, this approach theoretically allows light to traverse billions of lightyears instantaneously from distant stars to earth when isotropic synchrony conventions are modified.
6. White hole cosmology
In this speculative model, the gravitational collapse of a supermassive star in another universe spewed out matter through a “white hole” into our universe. This simultaneous matter creation from galaxies to stars enabled distant starlight visible on day four. The empty universe was quickly filled through this white hole formation, allowing light to traverse vast distances essentially instantaneously at creation.
7. Mature creation with light in transit
Perhaps the simplest explanation is that God created the universe in six literal days with the appearance of age on earth, while also independently creating the beam of starlight itself in transit through space. While light was created already visible from stars, it did not have to physically traverse the distance from those stars to earth over billions of years. The universe can have a true age of thousands of years with the light miraculously created en route to earth.
These are a few plausible explanations that Christians have offered to reconcile the Genesis account of creation with modern scientific knowledge about stars and cosmology. The perceived conflict emerges from interpreting scientific observations within an atheistic naturalistic framework. But when we use the Bible as our lens for interpreting the natural world, we allow for creative divine action in forming the universe instantaneously as well as processes like time dilation or mature creation with appearance of age.
Rather than definitively picking one solution, these possibilities collectively demonstrate that apparent star ages do not necessarily contradict the Biblical age of the earth. As scientists continue studying cosmology and as Christian scholars refine exegesis of Genesis, a greater consensus may emerge. But when we approach God’s word with humility, we can find reasonable scientific harmonization without compromising on the truth of Scripture.