How Old Is the House
Conflicts in Science by Royal T. McArdell
About the Book: How Old Is the House challenges many popular beliefs about scientific theories and scientific issues. Arguments both for and against popular theories and issues are presented so that you can make your own decisions as to what to believe. The Introduction is about a house that is either new or 150 years old- perhaps you can figure it out. Read the Introduction to the book and add your comments to the web log or send questions to the author. Items you can view are shown at the left below.
$12.95 + S&H
Book Topics:
The Big Bang
Planet Earth
Our Moon
Dinosaurs & Coal
Global Warming
Energy Problems
Evolution
Intelligent Design
Bible Accuracy
Early A.D. Docs.
Natural Laws
Questions & Ans.
Introduction Contact the Author
Introduction
News Articles:
Big Bang Issues
Revolving Univ.
More CO2
Please
Law of Biology
Evolution & Math
Early Universe
Seas Not
Rising
Early
Bible Events
Organic Soup
Polar Bears ok
The Great Flood
Creation
of Time
Afterlife
Faster Than
Light
Book Introduction:
Sometimes
age is not easy to measure.
Ed wanted to build a home on some land he owned in the country. There was a big pile of rubble on a nearby farm that contained the remains of several 150 year old farm buildings. The pile contained what was left of an old farmhouse, barn, out-buildings, silos and sheds. They were torn down a few years ago. Ed approached Bill, the owner of the pile of rubble.
“Bill, I’d like to build a house but I don’t have much money. Can I look through your old pile of stuff to see if there is anything worth using?”
“Take anything you can use, Ed. When you’re done, I’ll have the rest of it hauled to the dump.”
Ed studied the old remains for a while looking for useable materials. He finally decided that everything he needed to construct a house was in this big pile of scrap including stones and bricks for the foundation, framing materials, floor and wall materials, siding, even old nails, shingles, windows, etc. He wouldn’t need any money or additional materials to build his home. Ed talked some friends into helping him with his unusual project.
Four months later, Ed had a complete house built entirely from the 150 year old materials found in the pile of rubble.
So how old is the house?
Harold, a professor from a college in a nearby town, drove past the property. He had never noticed the house before and thought it had an unusual look that he liked. He got Ed’s name, looked up Ed’s telephone number, called and introduced himself.
“Ed, my name is Harold. I might be interested in buying your home, the one on the property next to Bill’s place. Would you be interested in selling?”
Now Ed had just finished the construction of the house and hadn’t moved in. This was an interesting idea that he had not thought of, because he had no money invested in the house and would make a nice profit if he sold it. So he answered Harold.
“Go ahead and look at it. Make an offer if you like.”
Harold hired a home inspector to examine the building. The inspector reported that the house was in average condition but seemed to be approximately 150 years old. The door handles and hinges were rusty, some of the construction materials had old dates stamped on them and everything looked used. The shingles on the roof and the plumbing seemed to be a little newer, probably because the house may have been remodeled and updated sometime after it was originally built. The home inspector indicated in his report that the house was about 150 years old.
Harold thought that the style didn’t look right for a house that was 150 years old, so he decided to ask a friend who taught architecture courses at the college to inspect it. Harold and his friend discussed the results of this second inspection while at lunch in the college cafeteria a few days later. Harold’s friend told him that the stairs and floors were not worn where they normally should show signs of wear. There was no path to the front door that you would expect to find in front of a 150 year old house. The exterior that should be worn from the weather did not show wear in the right places. If the house was 150 years old and it had never been lived in, there would still be cobwebs, signs of settling, dust and other signs of age. Harold’s friend said that in spite of the fact that it was obviously built with older materials, the house was new.
So there is a disagreement as to the age of the house.
It’s all about time and beliefs.
The discussions and facts in this book are like the house in this example. It’s all about observations and measurements of time, ages and theories where experts disagree with one another. In the case of our World, the differences in the measurements of age and time are so great that they have an effect on what we want to believe about the beginnings of our Universe and life. We will generally be dealing with long periods of time, but in at least one instance I’ll show you that three minutes, according to one scientist, could change all of our theories about how the Universe was made. I’ll also try to keep it as simple as I can.
Researchers who study the formation of our Universe have measurements that differ by billions of years. The estimates of the age of our Universe range from a low number of something under 7,000 years up to a maximum of around 20 billion years. This is an astounding amount of disagreement. Most scientific organizations and virtually all public educational institutions will inform you that the Universe is 13.66 billion years old and they have data and theories to support their beliefs. They also estimate that the Earth that we live on is roughly 4.5 billion years old. On the other hand, young Earth scholars believe that the Universe could be less than 7,000 years old, and there are scientists who agree with them. You will probably think that this is ridiculous if you don’t agree, but there are also some scientific data that support the 7,000 year old view.
Throughout this book you will probably like some of the explanations and will not like others depending on whether they agree or do not agree with your beliefs. Beliefs are far more powerful than facts, because we tend to look for and believe the facts that support our beliefs. We also tend to disbelieve or ignore equally valid facts that challenge our beliefs.
We’ll start off with the “Big Bang,” the most popular theory for measuring the age of the Universe.
Chapter 1
The Big Bang
“That’s how it all began, students, with the “Big Bang,” said the teacher. “We don’t have any other approved scientific theory for the beginning of our Universe.”
In the year 1929, Edwin Hubble (1889-1953) discovered that stars appeared to be moving away from us and also seemed to be moving away from one another. The most distant ones looked like they were moving away the fastest. It looked like everything in the Universe was expanding. Shortly afterward, the Big Bang theory was proposed. It was quickly accepted as a belief although some scientists said that it was too much like a description of creation- - -
How Old Is the House Copyright © 2007, Royal T. McArdell, All rights reserved