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Index to Creationist Claims,  edited by Mark Isaak,    Copyright © 2004
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Claim CE011.1:

Leap seconds have had to be inserted into the year twenty-two times between 1970 and 1999, showing that the earth is slowing 0.77 seconds per year. At this rate, the earth would have slowed to a stop if it were billions of years old.

Source:

Huse, Scott, 1996. The Collapse of Evolution, Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, p. 25.

Response:

  1. Adding leap seconds nearly every year does not indicate that the earth is slowing by nearly one second per year; it shows that there is a discrepancy between Coordinated Universal Time (UTC, an international standard) and astronomical time (NIST Time and Frequency Division n.d.). The earth is slowing down, but not at such a great rate. The length of a day now is very slightly more than twenty-four hours. If the earth kept rotating at the same rate, leap seconds would need to be inserted at the same rate they have been inserted in the last thirty years.

Links:

Robinson, B. A., 2002. A failed attempt to dialog with creation scientists, http://www.religioustolerance.org/ev_dialog.htm

References:

  1. NIST Time and Frequency Division, n.d., Frequently asked questions. http://www.boulder.nist.gov/timefreq/general/leaps.htm

Further Reading:

NIST, updated monthly. NIST time scale data archive. http://www.boulder.nist.gov/timefreq/pubs/bulletin/leapsecond.htm

Thwaites, William M. and Frank T. Awbrey, 1982. As the world turns: Can creationists keep time? Creation/Evolution IX (summer): 18-22, http://www.natcenscied.org/resources/articles/9626_issue_09__volume_3_number_3__1_3_2003.asp
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created 2003-4-21, modified 2003-9-16