Miracles in Solar System Origin Theories

Skipping over a difficulty because it can’t be solved scientifically: that’s one giant backward leap for theory kind.

Finagle’s Rule #6 for scientists recommends, “Do not believe in miracles. Rely on them.” Secular materialists follow that rule implicitly when trying to account for the origin of the solar system. They know full well that the “building blocks” of small grains, thought to have condensed out of a primordial gas cloud, do not stick together. They bounce off each other or, worse, erode each other into smaller grains. Only when an accreting ball of grains grows to about a kilometer in diameter will the so-called “planetesimal” begin to accrete more material through gravity. That’s the problem; you have to start with small planets to get planets. But materialists need a theory from the bottom up: from molecules to planets. How can they deal with this giant hurdle? Two ways: (1) invoke miracles, and (2) use the Big Lie tactic while doing it to make it sound convincing. Need proof? Look right here.

In Science Magazine, Francesco DeMeo introduces a family reunion of sorts: “Meet the primordial asteroid family.” Drum roll. Here comes the miracle and the big lie.

One of the major goals of planetary science is to understand the formation of all the bodies within our solar system, including the nearly one million known asteroids. There are two main competing theories (see the figure). The first and classical theory suggests that these bodies formed incrementally, starting as dust grains and accumulating bit by bit until they reached their final size. The second and more recent theory suggests that these bodies formed almost instantly through the gravitational collapse of clusters of pebble-sized material in the protoplanetary disk into single bodies hundreds or thousands of kilometers in diameter [the miracle]. This method skips the meter-to-kilometer intermediate size range that has been problematic to quantify with the classical method. On page 1026 of this issue, Delbo et al. find compelling observational evidence that when the asteroids formed, they were initially of large size, thus favoring the second model [the big lie].

Notice first that the evolutionists exclude creation as a model from the outset. That leaves secular materialists with only two models: gradualism and secular miracles. Instant planets thousands of kilometers in diameter? How can they propose that? If you thought punctuated equilibria was a miraculous theory in biology, look at the miracle here. What physical force could possibly bring this about?

The paper by Delbo et al. actually infers the secular miracle in a roundabout way. They never test if grains can actually condense into planetesimals with any experiments in a lab. All they do is count and measure asteroids. They find some orphan asteroids that they claim are 4 billion years old (Darwin Years, that is). Through their convoluted thinking, this can only mean one thing:

We discovered a 4-billion-year-old asteroid family extending across the entire inner part of the main belt whose members include most of the dark asteroids previously unlinked to families. This allows us to identify some original planetesimals, which are all larger than 35 kilometers, supporting the view of asteroids being born big.

“Born big”? That is worse than claiming that humans exit the birth canal as adults. Here’s how they present the miracle of instant planetesimals: they only refer to previous papers, particularly one in 2008 (see arXiv) that only proposed a “scenario” because of “the poorly understood sticking of mineral particle aggregates and the apparent difficulty of growing beyond meter size due to rapid inward migration and collisional disruption.” Now, nine years since that proposal, Delbo et al. know that the problem remains unsolved:

Understanding the formation of the planetesimals, the building blocks of planets, is a crucial problem in planetary science. Traditionally, a coagulation process is invoked, in which accreting collisions create bodies of all sizes up to several hundreds of kilometers. However, new models propose that planetesimals can form preferentially as 10² to 10⁴ km in size directly from the clumping of dust particles in the protoplanetary disk, essentially skipping the formation of kilometer-sized and smaller bodies (1–4).

The authors speak of “objects that were lost because of the collisional and dynamical evolution.” That makes sense; we know from experience that collisions break things down. Dynamical evolution can fling objects out of the solar system. But can chance instabilities organize planets instantly? Alan Boss felt like a heretic when he embraced the theory of disk instabilities forming instant gas giant planets (3/21/06, 8/15/15), but he thought core accretion would work for inner planets. This paper shows it does not. It appears that heresy is becoming orthodoxy.

Everybody believes in miracles. Some believe in guided miracles by an all-wise, omniscient Creator. Some believe in miracles of chance.

Everyone believes in the supernatural. Some refer to it as God’s realm. Others restrict it to science, which is supernatural, because it is not composed of matter in motion.

So don’t be fooled into falling for the faith vs science dichotomy. The choice is not between supernatural and natural, but which supernatural worldview logically coheres with the evidence.