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How the Moon and Its Relationship to the Earth Argue Against Evolutionby Jeff Estep
***DISCLAIMER- PLEASE READ*** THE AUTHOR OF THIS ARTICLE DOES NOT HAVE A PH.D., NOR DOES HE OR SHE CLAIM OR PRETEND TO BE A PROFESSIONAL SCIENTIST WITH CREDENTIALS THAT WOULD MAKE HIM AN "EXPERT" IN THE SCIENTIFIC COMMUNITY. ALTHOUGH THE ARGUMENTS PRESENTED IN THIS ARTICLE ARE ACCURATE TO THE BEST OF OUR KNOWLEDGE, "REASONS FOR CHRIST" ASKS THAT YOU WOULD PLEASE NOT USE THIS ARTICLE AS A SOURCE IN ACADEMIC PAPERS. THIS IS FOR YOUR PROTECTION. ALTHOUGH WE BELIEVE OUR ARTICLES ARE CREDIBLE, ANY ARGUMENTS YOU MAKE IN AN ACADEMIC PAPER WOULD BE MUCH MORE POWERFUL IF YOU USED ARTICLES WRITTEN BY AUTHORS WITH PH.D.'S AS YOUR SOURCES . THE BIBLIOGRAPHY AT THE END OF THE ARTICLE SHOULD HELP YOU FIND SOME GOOD SOURCES. IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT OUR SOURCES AND WHERE WE FOUND THEM, PLEASE E-MAIL US AND WE WILL RESPOND. For thousands of years, man has been fascinated with the moon. Ever since astronomy developed as a science, men and women have diligently studied its phases, movement, and geography. In the latter half of the 20th century, man finally set a goal to walk on the moon, and in 1969, that goal was accomplished. But even though man has set foot on the moon, there is still much to learn about this amazing rock. Evolutionists believe that the moon is approximately the same age as the earth, or around four billion years old. How the moon got there is still a mystery, even to the imaginative minds of the world's greatest astronomers. At the moment, the most popular theory is that a Mars-like object hit the earth about four billion years ago, and a large chunk of molten rock was thrown off of the Earth and into orbit, which cooled and became the moon. Although this theory is as crazy as it sounds, it is apparently the best evolutionists have to offer. Creationists, on the other hand, believe that the moon was created on the fourth day of a literal six Earth-day creation. Although we can not empirically prove that the moon was created 6-7,000 years ago, there is enough evidence to prove that the moon and the earth isn't billions of years old. Moon RecessionDid you know that the moon is getting farther and farther away from the earth every year? It's true! The force of gravity on the moon from the earth's oceans actually accelerates the moon in its orbit around the earth, effectively sling-shotting it into space! Right now, it is only receding at a rate of 3 cm a year, so it's not noticeable by the human eye. However, this fact of physics is of great advantage to the creationist. (For a better explanation of this, go to http://www.creationscience.com, click on "Technical ?'s", and then follow the link dealing with moon recession.) If the moon is getting farther away, that means that it has been closer in the past. Six thousand years ago it wouldn't have been very much closer to the earth than today. But when one traces the position of the moon over hundreds of millions of years one finds that the moon would have been very close to the earth. In fact, scientists have figured out the point in time where the moon would have been so close that it would have collided with the earth. This point is calculated at 1.2 billion years. The moon has to be less than 1.2 billion years old! (1/179) Continental ErosionThe moon's gravitational pull on the earth's oceans, known as "tides", are a major cause of continental erosion. As waves rise and fall with the tide, land is carried out into the sea. At the current rate of erosion, all of the earth's continents should have completely eroded in less than 25 million years. (1/24) Now, if the moon was closer in the past, the tides would have been higher (because as you cut the distance between two objects in half, you quadruple the gravitational force between them). In fact, the tides would have been miles high! (1/179) The erosion rate would have been higher, which means that it would have taken even less time for the continents to erode. Because the continents have not completely eroded, we can conclude that the earth is young. Earth's Slowing RotationThe tidal force not only erodes the continents, it actually slows down the earth's rotation! The days are indeed getting longer, at the rate of about 1 second every 3 years. The moon's tidal force on the earth's solid rock slows down the planet's rotation much like a hand slows down a spinning wheel. (1/179) If the earth's rotation is slowing down, then the earth would have rotated much faster in the distant past. The faster a planet spins, the more active its atmosphere is, resulting in higher winds. (This is known as the Coriolis Effect.) Evolutionists believe that a billion years ago the earth's atmosphere looked a lot like Jupiter's does today- a lot of parallel bands of wind currents moving at very high speeds. This wind would have made life on land unbearable. In addition, higher wind currents mean higher ocean currents, so underwater life would have also been treacherous. And higher water currents would have probably meant more land erosion. ConclusionSimple laws of physics, through mathematical calculations, show us that the moon cannot be more than 1.2 billion years old. If the moon were around millions of years ago, continental erosion rates would have been very high, wiping out the fossil record, and probably all life on land. In addition, the earth would have rotated much faster, resulting in higher winds, which would have contributed to coastal erosion and made life on earth nearly impossible. Therefore we can conclude that the earth is not millions of years old. The only alternative to evolution is special creation, which is described in the Bible.
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