Exploding Stars Destroy Life on Earth?

Genesis 1:16b
“…he made the stars also.”

Sometimes, a headline on a popular science website just pops out at me, and I know I just have to write something about it. One such headline declared “Exploding stars may have caused mass extinction on Earth, study shows”. Regular listeners to these Creation Moments will know that the last phrase of two words – “study shows” – is an example of a fuzzy word phrase, a phrase that deliberately undermines the authenticity of the previous clause in order to protect the author from having to defend the absolute truthfulness of that previous clause.

The article suggested that a mass extinction on Earth could have been caused by a “nearby” supernova, perhaps about 65 light years away. This is not their alleged end of the dinosaurs, but a previous mass extinction that they imagine took place hundreds of millions of years before the dinosaurs had evolved.

They suppose that such a nearby supernova could have appeared as bright as the Moon in the sky and washed the Earth with lots of light and a number of radioactive materials. Researchers are trying to examine the fossil record to see if unusual radioactive isotopes might be found at the extinction event boundary in the Geologic Column. As yet, little such evidence has emerged.

Remember that if these radioactive isotopes are discovered, it does not mean that this evolutionary narrative is valid. Genesis gives us the timescale in which all created things, including these isotopes, were made.

Prayer: We know, Lord, that Your word is always true, and we pray that You will help us to follow Your word more clearly all the time. Amen.

Author: Paul F. Taylor

Ref: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, News Bureau. “Exploding stars may have caused mass extinction on Earth, study shows.” ScienceDaily, 18 August 2020. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/08/200818142104.htm>. Image: Trilobites, supposedly destroyed by supernova, CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported.