Star light problem:
One of the best “evidences” for a old earth is the distance of the stars. Many stars are billions of light years away (a light year is the distance light travels in one year). Since the stars are billions of light years away, that means the stars must be billions of years old, right? This sounds quite logical, but there are other ways to explain the distant star other than a old universe. There are actually two different ways to explain the distant starlight reached earth in only one day. We will look at both of them.
1. By Dr. Russ Humphries: His idea sounds very strange, but it is actually scientific. His idea comes from Psalms 148:4 and Genesis 1:6-10 which says “waters that are above the heaven.” He believes that there is a massive layer of water which are is around the universe. This massive sheet of water could effect the flow of time. On the forth day, he believes the earth was plunged into a period of “timelessness” when all physical processes stop, including time itself. This area of timelessness expanded from the earth and eventually engulfed all of the galaxies at the edge of the universe. After it had reached the edges of the universe, the timelessness zone would reverse bringing back the star light with it. Dr. Russ Humphreys says, “When the sphere reaches zero radius and disappears, Earth emerges, and immediately the light that has been following the sphere will reach Earth, even light that started billions of light years away. On the forth day, an observer on the night side of the earth would see a black sky one instant, and a sky filled with stars the next instant.” This does sound far fetched, but it is very possible this is actually what happened.
2. By Dr. John Hartnett: This idea is a little more simple. It is basically that on the forth say God was “stretching” out the heavens. The great accelerated stretching of the universe would have effects on time and the speed of light. Basically, his idea was that on day four clock were running extremely fast due to the rapid expansion of the universe thus making light visible to the earth on the fourth day.
Both of these idea are scientific, but there is one more thing to consider: God does not have limits by the laws of science, time, or the speed of light, since he created them all. He has power over time, light and the whole universe in general. God could easily have made the light get here is just hours. God is limitless, and we must not put limitations on Him. His creation cannot limit Him in any way. By Samuel Murphy