Rosa Rubicondior: Refuting Creationism - Biblical Ignorance Exposed By Science Again

Sunday, 21 September 2025

Refuting Creationism - Biblical Ignorance Exposed By Science Again

A spiral galaxy, tilted nearly face-on to us, with a slightly unusual shape. Its spiral arms form an oval-shaped ring around the galaxy’s disc, filled with blue light from stars, as well as pink glowing gas bubbles where new stars are forming. Threads of dark red dust swirl around the brightly glowing core, blocking some of its light. The dust lanes extend into and follow the spiral arms.

Taking a third look | ESA/Hubble

Messier 96

NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope

This week’s exposure of the child-like naivety of the Bible's authors comes again in the form of the NASA/ESA/Hubble Space Telescope image of the week. This week, we have a stunning view of an asymmetric spiral galaxy, Messier 96; a mere 35 million light-years away. Even more amazing is the evidence of baby suns actively forming in this galaxy while it is being stretched by gravity.

Today’s NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week features a galaxy whose asymmetric appearance may be the result of a galactic tug of war. Located 35 million light-years away in the constellation Leo, the spiral galaxy Messier 96 is the brightest of the galaxies in its group. The gravitational pull of its galactic neighbours may be responsible for Messier 96’s uneven distribution of gas and dust, asymmetric spiral arms, and off-centre galactic core.

This asymmetric appearance is on full display in a new Hubble image, which incorporates observations made in ultraviolet and optical light. Hubble images of Messier 96 have been released previously in 2015 and 2018. Each successive image has added new data, building up a beautiful and scientifically valuable view of the galaxy.

Messier 96 (NGC 3368).

Type: Intermediate spiral galaxy (SAB(rs)ab)
Constellation: Leo
Distance: ~31–36 million light-years
Diameter: ~100,000 light-years (comparable to the Milky Way)
Apparent Magnitude: ~9.2 (visible in small telescopes)
Discovery: 1781 by Pierre Méchain; added to Charles Messier’s catalogue the same year
M96 is the brightest member of the Leo I Group of galaxies, which also includes M95 and M105. It has a somewhat asymmetric structure—its spiral arms and gas distribution appear off-centre relative to its core, likely due to gravitational interactions with neighbouring galaxies.

The galaxy has regions of active star formation, especially in its spiral arms, and contains a mix of old and young stellar populations. In 1998, it hosted a Type Ia supernova (SN 1998bu), which was important for refining measurements of cosmic distances.

This third version gives an entirely new perspective on Messier 96’s star formation. The bubbles of pink gas in this image surround hot, young, massive stars, illuminating a ring of star formation in the outskirts of the galaxy. These young stars are still embedded within the clouds of gas from which they were born. The new data included for the first time in this image will be used to study how stars are born within giant dusty gas clouds, how dust filters starlight, and how stars affect their environments.

This gives us a glimpse not only of the great age of the Universe but of the immense forces acting over immense distances that shape the universe.

And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day. And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.

Gensis 1: 6-10

And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.

Gensis 1: 14-18

For those who would like a wallpaper of this image, ESA provide the following:

Dimension/link	File Size
1024x768	291.6 KB
1280x1024	500.9 KB
1600x1200	771.4 KB
1920x1200	964.7 KB
2048x1536	1.3 MB

The contrast between this picture of the universe and the description of it in the early verses of Genesis, couldn't be clearer evidence of the child-like ignorance of the Bible's authors.

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