Are You Religious?

[PB_guy]

Dave, I believe you are referring to redshift in general, rather than doppler shift which is inconsequential.

a cosmological redshift measures the expansion of space between light source and observer while the light is in

transit; fundamentally it has nothing to do with velocity. If the expansion is smooth in time, such a redshift is proportional

to velocity; individual galaxy motions (e.g. due to orbiting in the gravitational field of a group of galaxies) will add a

positive or negative Doppler shift.

You are probably unaware of the research of secular scientist Halton Arp who has published 2 books on the subject:

"Quasars, Redshifts and Controversies (1987)" and "Seeing Red: Redshifts, Cosmology and Academic Science (1999)"

There is a review on them from a creationist viewpoint: www.answersingenesis.org/articles/tj/v14/n3/universe

Some quotes from the review:

In these two books, Halton Arp elaborates his contention that since 1966,

observations have been accumulating which contradict the generally accepted big bang cosmology. The key issue is the

interpretation of redshift, the fractional increase in the wavelengths of lines in an astronomical spectrum when compared

with laboratory wavelengths. Arp puts together a substantial body of observations to produce a very different picture of

the universe from that envisaged in big bang cosmology.

...

quasars figure prominently in this book. These were first encountered in radio surveys in the early 1960s. Optically they

looked just like stars, but their spectra were unrecognizable until the Caltech astronomer Maarten Schmidt found that they

possessed enormous redshifts.

...

Arp notes that there is considerable evidence that not only quasars, but galaxies too, can violate the accepted

redshift-distance relation. This strengthens the case that the redshift-distance law can be broken.

...

For example, the disturbed galaxy NGC 4319 and the nearby quasar Markarian 205 have very different redshifts (cz =

1,700 km/s and 21,000 km/s respectively), yet anyone can see from the photographs that they are connected. Thus the

quasar is close to the galaxy in space, not at its redshift distance according to the Hubble law. Despite much criticism, this

result, which plainly contradicts conventional assumptions, has been confirmed by several independent lines of evidence.

...

Some galaxies (e.g. NGC 1097) are accompanied by lines of quasars pointing outwards from their nuclei. Furthermore, Arp

shows (chapter 5) that the distribution of a large number of bright quasars in space is very different from that expected on

conventional assumptions, and that many are associated with nearby galaxies.

...

Arp also shows plenty of examples of galaxies visibly connected to smaller companion galaxies with redshifts up to 36,000

km/s higher.

...

Members of the M31 (Local Group) and M81 galaxy groups are systematically redshifted with respect to the dominant

galaxies in a way that cannot be explained in terms of orbital velocities within the groups. Not only this, but the redshift

intervals are quantized in multiples of 72 km/s. Despite much ridicule, this result has been confirmed in other galaxy

groups but has been ignored by conventional astronomers because it cannot be explained in terms of big bang

cosmology.

This quote is very telling as to the reaction of those in power who have no desire to question their basic assumptions:

Arp summarises the problem of following up research of the kind he has described thus (p. 162):

‘Since the people who make these kinds of observations have now been excluded from regular observations on the

[Palomar 200-inch] telescope . . . how can one measure the magnitudes and redshifts [of new quasars] and obtain

complete area surveys which are so useful and necessary? . . . It is clear there is a vested political interest in suppressing

these kinds of observing projects.’

And in summary:

The main significance of these two books is that Arp presents a wealth of direct observational evidence that

contradicts the foundational assumption of big bang cosmology, viz. that extragalactic redshifts are due mainly to an

expanding universe.

...

Hence the observed universe is smaller than hitherto supposed by a factor of up to 100. Inferred masses and luminosities

are reduced by the square of this factor, i.e. 10,000. Arp finds little or no evidence for the existence of the ‘dark matter’

which is supposed to dominate the mass content of the universe.

regards, ian