Time Dilation
Time dilation is an interesting thing. It describes a situation where the apparent flow of time of a different frame is slower or faster than ours.
If one were to make the argument that Earth is only around 10,000 years old, and that time dilation is the proof, then we could work through the
logic of that to see if it has merit.
If the universe and all that is in it has an age around the magnitude of tens of thousands of years old, then the analysis should go as follows:
If time dilation has made a distant object, which is farther from a large mass than we are, appear to be billions of years old (because their clocks are
running faster and they are aging faster) when in fact it is only a thousand years old, then looking in the opposite direction (toward the great mass)
we would expect to see objects that appear to be only a few hundred years old (because their clock rates, hence their planetary metabolism, are so much slower).
But, that is not the case, we don’t find that all objects between Earth and the center of the Milky Way seem to be younger than Earth. Instead, what we see
as we look toward the center of the Milky Way are objects that appear to be millions of years old, which would make Earth older than that (after correcting
for time dilation) if all things were created simultaneously.
The time dilation argument falls apart when trying to use it to show a young Earth, but even if we back away from the celestial arguments and look at our
own planetary metabolism, we see from geological historical records over the past several hundred years and from photographs taken over the past many decades
how slowly things move and change. An extrapolation from 50 years to 5000 years is only a factor of 100. The movements of mountains and continents and the
stacking of layers of sedimentary strata in the earth and the ocean bottoms don’t follow that extrapolation, not even within a factor of 1,000,000, so certainly
not within a factor of 100. There is an argument that God could have created things “in place” such that things just look old, and photons of light were
created “on the fly” so that it just looks like they originated from somewhere distant. That violates our resumption #3 (on the Home Page), but if we want
to go ahead and say anyway those things are just a trick of creation, then anything else can also be a trick and therefore nothing.
I choose instead to believe that I am not being tricked, and that what I have been given to perceive is truthful to the extent of my human capacities. i.e.
I may not be able to perceive all, but what little I can perceive is not a lie. The writers of the ancient manuscripts believed the same as I do in that regard.
From presumption #3 (on the Home Page) we stipulate that we are not being tricked, and so I believe that I am sitting in an actual chair because
I can see it and measure it. It need not always come down to only faith to believe something.