Starlight problem

The starlight problem is an argument in favor of a universe with a long history - many billions of years - as opposed to the six thousand year age young earth creationists interpret based on the Genesis narrative and their interpretations of various lines of scientific data. In addition, the starlight problem is also an argument against the Big Bang Theory which theorizes a universe of billions of years old.

Using parallax calculations, the Milky Way galaxy alone can be directly observed to have a diameter of approximately 80-100,000 light years. Calculations based on the observed brightness of supernovas of known energy output can determine the distance to more distant objects. The most distant object known is a star cluster approximately thirteen billion light-years away from Earth, observed by the Hubble telescope using gravitational lensing.

Several solutions have been proposed by creationists to explain how a young universe may be reconciled with these observations.

Starlight Problem for the Big Bang Theory

The starlight problem is an argument against the Big Bang Theory which theorizes a universe of billions of years old. The creation science organization Answers in Genesis has stated the following regarding the starlight problem for the Big Bang Theory and the work of Charles W. Misner is cited who published his work in Physical Review Letters:

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The problem is this: even assuming the big bang timescale, there has not been enough time for light to travel between widely separated regions of space. So, how can the different regions of the current [cosmic microwave background] CMB have such precisely uniform temperatures if they have never communicated with each other? This is a light-travel–time problem.

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Young Earth Creationist Views Regarding Starlight

In regards to the question of how one can see starlight from millions of light years away, young earth creation scientists commonly mention several things.

• Creationist Barry Setterfield has proposed that the speed of light was faster in the past. This idea is widely accepted by creationists. In 1999, John Webb, a professor at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, and his colleagues reported astronomical observations suggesting that the value of the fine-structure constant (which is related to the speed of light) may have changed which they subsequently published in 2001 in Physical Review Letters. If correct, then various theories that constants have always may need to be changed. When Barry Setterfield took the position that the speed of light was much faster in the past the main objection was the purported constancy of fundamental laws.
• The work of young earth creation scientist Dr. John Hartnett proposes an alternative creationist view, by theorizing the Earth was trapped in a time-dilation field caused by extremely strong gravitation during the first few days of creation, from Earth's point of view, while billions of years passed for the rest of the universe. He attributes the field, its removal and the continued balance in our solar system (after the field was removed) to divine intervention. This theory is not widely accepted by creationists.
• The starlight problem applies only to a young universe. Some young-earth creationists interpret Genesis as describing only the creation of the Earth in six days, not the entire universe.