Seeing Dark Matter - Creation Moments

Psalm 19:1

“The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork”.

As with many astronomical topics, we have discussed dark matter before in these Creation Moments. Big Bang Believers have a mass problem. There is not enough observed mass in the universe to account for many observations. Therefore, many Big Bang Believers suggest that the universe must be filled with dark matter. This form of matter, which must constitute the overwhelming majority of the universe’s mass, does not interact with anything else in the universe; hence, it cannot be seen. It should, at this point, be emphasized that not all secular cosmogonists believe in the existence of dark matter. Indeed, not even all Big Bang Believers accept it.

A recent report published by the Royal Astronomical Society refers to star clusters, whose appearance they interpret as showing evidence for dark matter.

“We have found a way to ‘see’ dark matter,” says the report’s lead author. “We have found that very faint light in galaxy clusters, the intracluster light, maps how dark matter is distributed.”

It needs to be emphasized over and over again that astronomers have not seen dark matter, nor have they seen the formation of stars. They have observed interesting phenomena which they interpret as dark matter.

John Hartnett, a creationist cosmologist, explains that the concept of dark matter prevents, rather than aids, explanation of cosmology because it is believed to constitute the overwhelming majority of the universe. “Even if we should come up with a theory that perfectly explained what we do see, we have not explained the universe.”

Prayer: Thank You, Lord God and Heavenly Father, that Your word explains where everything in the universe came from and how You made it all from nothing. Amen.

Author: Paul F. Taylor

Ref: Williams, A. and Hartnett, J. (2005), Dismantling the Big Bang (Green Forest, AR: Master Books), pp. 136-139. Image: NASA / Hubble Telescope, Public Domain.