INTRODUCTION
Numerous young earth creationist proponents have argued variably that the Sun is shrinking a few feet annually, five feet annually, that the Sun would have been impossibly large ten thousand years ago, one hundred thousand years ago, several thousand years ago, twenty five million years ago, that the Sun would have catapulted the Earth away or would have engulfed it, scorched it, etc. (Abridge, 1980) (Baugh, 1989) (Snelling, 1989) The reason for this diversity of opinion is due to the fact that the argument is not based on reliable or sound arguments.
ANALYSIS
In 1979, an abstract by John Eddy and Adam Boornazian was put forward to the American Astronomical Society titled Secular Decrease in the Solar Diameter, 1836-1953. (Eddy, Boornazian, 1979) Keep in mind, this was just an abstract, not a peer reviewed paper. Prior to publishing more data, the authors would rescind their abstract, as the results had been reached in error. This did not stop young earth creationists from going forward with the lone abstract as if it were on the right track.
The Observatoire de Paris has compared 300 years worth of solar observations, and it has been demonstrated that the sun is not shrinking. Even if the data arose to show that the sun was minutely growing or shrinking, there is evidence from other stars exhibiting such behavior from time to time (cyclical expansion / contraction) that would invalidate any assertions that the phenomenon must by uniformitarian. (Isaak, 2004) (Johansson, 2003) (Matson, 2002) (Reed, 2016) (Thompson, n.d.) (VanTill, 1986)
As referenced in the footnotes, this data has not swayed all young earth creationists to distance themselves from this view. In fact, several young earth creationist organizations have allowed this disproving of the shrinking / growing Sun phenomenon to lead them into believing that the Sun is young because it is not growing or shrinking (a position known as the faint young sun paradox). (Snelling, 1989) (Faulkner, 2012)
The paradox essentially goes as follows: billions of years ago, the Sun was much dimmer than it is today. This would have made Earth much cooler. However, the fossil evidence we have at our disposal shows that Earth was much warmer at the time than we would expect based on the brightness of the Sun as we understand it to have been at the time. (MinuteEarth, 2016) Young earth creationists have attempted to frame this difficulty as if it were grounds for a Sun that fits into a six-to-ten-thousand year old parameter, even though the Sun would be magnitudes older than young earth models predict even if the paradox limits the age of the Sun. Further, there are a number of independent lines of data that answer the faint young sun paradox without having to claim that the Sun is insanely younger than all current models would suggest.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, the Sun is not shrinking. As such, it's alleged uniformitarian rate of shrinkage is non-existent, and in no way creates a problem for a billions of years old Sun. Additionally, the secondary issue that arises from the Sun's static nature also poses no genuine issues for an ancient Sun.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Akridge, R. (1980, April 1) The Sun Is Shrinking. Institute for Creation Research. LINK. (Footnote 1)
Baugh, C. (1989) Panorama of Creation. Hearthstone Publishing, pp. 10. LINK\
Eddy, J. A., Boornazian, A. A. (1979) Secular Decrease in the Solar Diameter, 1863-1953. Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 11, 437. LINK.
Faulkner, D. R. (2012, October 1) Faint Sun Paradox. Answers in Genesis. LINK.
Isaak, M. (2004) CE310: The incredible shrinking sun. Index to Creationist Claims. LINK.
Johansson, S. (2003, July 27) The Solar FAQ: Solar Neutrinos and Other Solar Oddities. TalkOrigins. LINK.
Matson, D. (2002) How Good Are Those Young-Earth Arguments? A Close Look at Dr. Hovind's List of Young Earth Arguments and Other Claims (#1). TalkOrigins. LINK.
MinuteEarth (2016, September 7) The Faint Young Sun Paradox! [Video]. YouTube. LINK.
Reed, T. [Tony Reed] (2016, February 5) How Creationism Taught Me Real Science 35 Shrinking Sun [Video]. YouTube. LINK.
Snelling, A. (1989) Is the sun shrinking? Part Two: The debate continues. Creation, 11(2), 30-34. LINK. (Footnote 2)
Thompson, T. (n.d.) Is the Earth Young? A Response to the "Shrinking Sun" Argument. LINK.
VanTill, H. J. (1986) The Legend of the Shrinking Sun - A Case Study Comparing Professional Science and "Creation Science" in Action. Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith, 38(3), 164-174. LINK.
FOOTNOTES
Footnote 1 - Interestingly, instead of retracting this article and issuing a correction in its place, the ICR has seen fit to leave the article up in its entirety, affixing a small disclaimer as an introduction to warn the reader of the article's errors.
Footnote 2 - As with Akridge's article, Creation Ministries International has not taken this article down, despite the errors it admits to having in a disclaimer similar to the ICR's.
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