Is the sun expanding/contracting?

CLAIM: The sun is shrinking, meaning that if we extrapolate backwards 50,000 years the sun would be so large that it would boil the ocean and destroy all life. (Baugh, 1989, p.10) (Baugh & Wilson, 1992, p.58-59, 136-137) (Ferrel, 2006, p.129-130) (Petersen, 2012, p.58-59)

RESPONSE: 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, fifty thousand years ago, twenty-five million years ago, that the Sun would have catapulted Earth away or would have engulfed it, scorched it, etc. (Akridge, 1980; Baugh, 1989, p.10; Baugh & Wilson, 1992, p.58-59, 136-137; Ferrel, 2006, p.129-130; Petersen, 2012, p.58-59; Snelling, 1988; 1989) The reason for this diversity of opinion is the fact that the original paper that started the speculation among young-Earth creationists was retracted following peer-review.

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, suggesting that the sun may be shrinking by about 2 arcseconds every century (or about five feet per year). Keep in mind this was just an abstract, published before the results had been checked by the wider community - and checked they were. Following the publication of the abstract, numerous researchers published in-depth data that showed that the sun was not shrinking and that the original abstract had been incorrect, leading Eddy and Boornazian to rescind it.

"...Sabatino Sofia, John O'Keefe and their team, all from Goddard Space Flight Center, published an article in Science detailing their own observations. They also used observations of the Sun's transit through the meridians to measure the fluctuations of the size of the Sun. They determined that the Sun's angular diameter did not diminish by more than .5 arcseconds between 1850 and 1937. The next year, Irwin Shapiro used observations of Mercury's transit across the Sun made between 1736 and 1973 to publish an article in Science. The measurements he studied indicated a shrinkage of less than .3 arcseconds per century. That same year, David W. Dunham published measurements of eclipses from 1715-1979 and determined that there was less than .25 arcseconds change per century...This, in turn, led to John H. Parkinson, Leslie V. Morrison, and F. Richard Stephenson double-checking the work by Eddy and Boornazian and determined the discrepancies and conclusions were caused by imperfect and antiquated tools for measurement as well as atmospheric disturbance...Also in this paper, the team analyzed the work in the subsequent papers and noticed a cyclical trend of shrinking and expanding every 76 years." (Reed, 2016, 1:48-3:15)

The Observatoire de Paris has compared 300 years' worth of solar observations, and have demonstrated that the sun is not shrinking, but in fact experiences minute cyclical periods of growth and shrinkage, a phenomenon which has been observed in other stars and was, believe it or not, actually confirmed to be happening to the Sun in a 1984 paper co-authored by John Eddy, one of the original authors of the "shrinking sun" paper. (Frohlich & Eddy, 1984; Isaak, 2004; Johansson, 2003; Matson, 2002; Thompson, 2013; VanTill, 1986) This expanding/shrinking pheomenon is why you see such diversity of opinion within the creationist literature as to whether or not the sun has or has not been shrinking and for how long it has been going on - it all depends on where the author is cherry picking their information from.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, the Sun is not growing or shrinking at a uniformitarian rate, and as such, can't act as a clock to date a maximum age for the Earth.

REFERENCES AND FURTHER READING

Akridge, R. (1980) The Sun is Shrinking. Acts & Facts, 9(4).

Baugh, C. (1989) Panorama of Creation. Hearthstone Publishing.

Baugh, C. & Wilson, C. (1992) Footprints and the Stones of Time: Scientific Evidence that Man and Dinosaurs Walked the Earth Together. Hearthstone Publishing.

Eddy, J. A. & Boornazian, A. A. (1979) Secular Decrease in the Solar Diameter, 1863-1953. Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 11, 437.

Ferrel, V. (2006) Science vs. Evolution. Evolution Facts.

Frohlich, C. & Eddy, J. A. (1984) Observed relation between solar luminosity and radius. Advances in Space Research, 4(8), 121-124.

Isaak, M. (2004) CE310: The incredible shrinking sun. Index to Creationist Claims.

Johansson, S. (2003, July 27) The Solar FAQ: Solar Neutrinos and Other Solar Oddities. TalkOrigins.

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.

Petersen, D. (2012) Unlocking the Mysteries of Creation: The Explorer's Guide to the Awesome Works of God. Creation Resource Foundation.

Reed, T. [Tony Reed] (2016, February 5) How Creationism Taught Me Real Science 35 Shrinking Sun [Video]. YouTube.

Snelling, A. (1988) Is the sun shrinking? Part 1. The evidence unfolds. Creation Ex Nihilo, 11(1), 14-19.

Snelling, A. (1989) Is the sun shrinking? Part 2. The debate continues. Creation Ex Nihilo, 11(2), 30-34.

Thompson, T. (2013) Is the Earth Young? A Response to the "Shrinking Sun" Argument.

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.