Astronomy
Astronomy is "the study of objects and matter outside the earth's atmosphere and of their physical and chemical properties." [1] It has been studied since ancient times, forming a major part of the religions of many early civilizations such as the Egyptians and the Aztecs. The great stone henge at Stonehenge in England is also thought to be an astronomical observatory. The handing down of complex astronomical teachings shows these early civilizations must have had formalized systems of education.
Astronomy was crucial to the development of safe and accurate navigation for ships, and observations of the movement of heavenly bodies helped lead to the theories we now call physics. In fact, much of astronomy today relies physics, thus many astronomers are considered astrophysicists.
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Young Earth Creationism View
Young earth creationist hold the earth and universe is approximately 6,000 years old. Young earth creationist scientists state the following is true: there are multiple lines of evidence pointing to a young earth and universe; the old earth and universe paradigm has numerous anomalies and uses invalid dating methods, and there are multiple citations in the secular science literature that corroborate the implausibilty of the old earth and universe paradigm (for details see: Young earth creationism).
An Objection to Young Earth Creationism
Because velocity = distance/time, a young earth creationist wishing to postulate a universe of approximately 6000 years old faces a number of problems if one uses assumes the speed of light has always been the same as it is now and/or insists on utilizing an a priori methodological naturalism approach to the issue:
1. If they accept that the speed of light is indeed a constant 299,792,458 meters per second (approximately 186,282.3 miles per second), then they must argue for massive and systemic error in the measurement of distance between Earth and the vast majority of the observable universe.
2. If they accept that the measured distances are correct, then they must argue for a catastrophic miscalculation of the speed of light.
References
External Links
The NASA Homepage
The NASA Planetary Photojournal
American Astronomical Society
British Astronomical Association
A guide on how to start
