The Earth’s Magnetic Field: Evidence for a Young Earth

Surrounding the earth is a force field, a magnetic field that helps protect the earth against harmful radiation. It’s fairly easy to detect the field; all you need is a compass. Like a regular magnet, the earth has poles – we call them the North Pole and South Pole. Compasses always point to the North Pole. This isn’t the north axis but rather the earth’s magnetic pole.

Almost 40 years ago, Dr. Thomas Barnes, a young earth creationist, observed that the magnetic field of the earth is decaying at an observable rate. Based on measurements taken since the late 19th century, as well certain archeological measurements, he estimated the half-life of the field to be only around 1,400 years (meaning the field loses ½ of its strength every 1,400 years).

This spells trouble for anyone believing in an old earth. As we go back further in time, the field would have been exponentially stronger. More than 10,000 years ago, the field would have been so strong it would melt the earth!

Of course, evolutionists disagree. Rather than a decaying field, evolutionists subscribe to the “dynamo theory” where the field is created and sustained by the rotation of the earth and a molten core. Although the strength of the field can vary, the field is continuously being regenerated.

Dr. Russell Humphreys holds a PhD in physics from Louisiana State University and is also a young-earth creationist. He’s had a very successful career in the private sector and, after retirement, continues to do work for ICR and AiG. Though militant evolutionists despise him, he is highly regarded among creationists for research in creationist studies such as the RATE project.

Several years ago, Dr. Humphreys successfully embarrassed secular astronomers by correctly predicting the “magnetic moments” of both Uranus and Neptune. He published his predictions more than 5 years before the Voyage spacecraft sailed past the planets and confirmed his theory. The assumptions he used in his predictions were based on a young universe. The remarkable thing is that his prediction differed from secular scientists’ models (based on the dynamo theory) by an order of magnitude.

There are several other problems with the dynamo theory but the point is this: the earth’s magnetism is running down. No old earth model can explain how this has been going on for even hundreds of thousands of years, let alone millions or billions.