Trending away creationism, 1 stars
Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2013 8:21 pm
Trending away creationism, 1 stars
Mankind's understanding of the natural world has exploded since the first half of the 19th century. Since then, more data has flooded in from both cosmic realms and the nanoscopic realms. As our data and theories of the world expand, the trend is moving conspicuously away from creationism. The gaps in our knowledge, where the creative acts of a supernatural god could be inserted, grow ever smaller and ever more sparse.
Join me on a six-part series as we travel along and discuss the evidence that is most disastrous for creationist accounts of nature's origins.
In part one, I discuss the natural formation and life cycle of stars.
From the 16th verse of chapter 1 of Genesis from the Old Testament.
"He made the stars also" is an unfortunate phrase, because stars form naturally. The perfectly natural process by which this happens is called a starburst. It is not mere theory. Modern astronomers have not only seen starbursts, but astronomy has documented so many of them that they can even measure the rate of star formation in galaxies.
The science of astronomy has categorized stars based on their size and brightness. Most stars fit along a category called the "main sequence". Outliers off the main sequence are red giants, and very small, bright stars called white dwarfs, both of which occupy their own sequence. Astronomy knows that stars form via a starburst, and then go through a life cycle that ends in a supernova, wherein the atomic fuel of the star is finally expended. Astronomers can estimate the approximate age of stars, and have even published findings regarding the distribution of young versus old stars in the milky way galaxy. A pattern is apparent in this distribution, although the source of it still a mystery to science at the current time.
The sun itself is categorized as a "yellow" main sequence star, its higher brightness places it a little bit outside of the category. "Yellow" is more a categorization than a description of its visible color. Astronomers estimate the age of the sun at 4.57 billion years. They estimate it will die at around 5 billion years into the future.
Stars form by natural processes, and burn through their fuel in a well-understood process of fusion of hydrogen nuclei. When the hydrogen nuclei are all used up, the star dies in a massive explosion. All processes are documented, and photos are available on the internet of each stage. Recently the Hubble telescope caught a glimpse of a supernova happening in real time, which is not altogether easy to capture in the sky.
Mankind's understanding of the natural world has exploded since the first half of the 19th century. Since then, more data has flooded in from both cosmic realms and the nanoscopic realms. As our data and theories of the world expand, the trend is moving conspicuously away from creationism. The gaps in our knowledge, where the creative acts of a supernatural god could be inserted, grow ever smaller and ever more sparse.
Join me on a six-part series as we travel along and discuss the evidence that is most disastrous for creationist accounts of nature's origins.
In part one, I discuss the natural formation and life cycle of stars.
From the 16th verse of chapter 1 of Genesis from the Old Testament.
And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.
"He made the stars also" is an unfortunate phrase, because stars form naturally. The perfectly natural process by which this happens is called a starburst. It is not mere theory. Modern astronomers have not only seen starbursts, but astronomy has documented so many of them that they can even measure the rate of star formation in galaxies.
The science of astronomy has categorized stars based on their size and brightness. Most stars fit along a category called the "main sequence". Outliers off the main sequence are red giants, and very small, bright stars called white dwarfs, both of which occupy their own sequence. Astronomy knows that stars form via a starburst, and then go through a life cycle that ends in a supernova, wherein the atomic fuel of the star is finally expended. Astronomers can estimate the approximate age of stars, and have even published findings regarding the distribution of young versus old stars in the milky way galaxy. A pattern is apparent in this distribution, although the source of it still a mystery to science at the current time.
The sun itself is categorized as a "yellow" main sequence star, its higher brightness places it a little bit outside of the category. "Yellow" is more a categorization than a description of its visible color. Astronomers estimate the age of the sun at 4.57 billion years. They estimate it will die at around 5 billion years into the future.
Stars form by natural processes, and burn through their fuel in a well-understood process of fusion of hydrogen nuclei. When the hydrogen nuclei are all used up, the star dies in a massive explosion. All processes are documented, and photos are available on the internet of each stage. Recently the Hubble telescope caught a glimpse of a supernova happening in real time, which is not altogether easy to capture in the sky.