Young Earth Creationists throw Jason Lisle's and his ASC Under the Bus

The article "An Internal Contradiction of Lisle's Anisotropic Synchrony Convention (ASC) Model" is a technical critique, authored by Dr. Phillip Dennis (a YEC) , which argues that Dr. Jason Lisle's Anisotropic Synchrony Convention (ASC) model for resolving the distant starlight problem in young-earth creationism is fundamentally inconsistent.

Dr. Jason Lisle proposed the Anisotropic Synchrony Convention (ASC) as a solution to the "light travel time problem" (LTTP), which asks how light from galaxies millions of light-years away could reach Earth within a biblically literal young universe (thousands of years).

Lisle's ASC hinges on the conventionality of simultaneity within Special Relativity (SR). SR dictates that the two-way (round-trip) speed of light, c, is constant and measurable, but the one-way speed of light is a matter of convention because distant clocks cannot be synchronized without already knowing that speed. The standard convention is Einstein Synchrony Convention (ESC), which defines the one-way speed of light as c in all directions.

The ASC, in contrast, is an observer-centric convention that defines the one-way speed of light as instantaneous (infinite) when traveling toward the Earth and c/2 when traveling away from the Earth (with a directional dependence for intermediate angles). This choice of convention mathematically ensures that light from even the most distant stars reaches an observer on Earth instantaneously, thus resolving the LTTP by allowing the entire universe to be seen at an age of only a few thousand years, consistent with a young-earth chronology. Lisle maintains that this is a valid coordinate transformation, not a change in physics.

The critique, "An Internal Contradiction of Lisle's ASC Model," argues that the ASC model contains a logical inconsistency because it attempts to combine the mathematical structure of Minkowski space (the geometry underlying Special Relativity) with a conclusion that fundamentally contradicts one of Minkowski space's intrinsic properties.

Incompatibility with Minkowski Space

  1. ASC's Foundation: The ASC model is constructed upon the mathematical framework of Special Relativity, which uses Minkowski spacetime. This geometry inherently assumes and depends on the invariant nature of the speed of light, c, for all inertial observers and in all directions.

  2. The Invariant Null Interval: In Minkowski space, light rays are characterized by a null interval (or light-like interval), denoted as ds^2 = 0, where ds^2 = c^2 dt^2 - (dx^2 + dy^2 + dz^2). This condition is invariant meaning it has the same value in all valid coordinate systems, including those defined by a synchrony convention. The null interval mathematically represents the fact that the physical speed of light is isotropic (the same in all directions).

  3. The Contradiction: The critique asserts that if the ASC model were to truly maintain the physical and invariant properties of Minkowski space, its conclusion that the one-way speed of light toward the Earth is arbitrarily large (infinite) must be purely a coordinate effect that alters no physical quantities. However, by claiming this instantaneous speed effectively solves the LTTP by making the universe appear only thousands of years old, Lisle treats the anisotropic speed as a physical reality that alters the apparent age and causality structure of the universe as observed from Earth.

The core argument is that a mere coordinate transformation (the ASC) cannot alter the intrinsic, invariant speed of light that is mathematically embedded in the Minkowski metric (the basis of SR). Therefore, the purported conclusion of ASC that starlight travel time is zero is logically inconsistent with the foundational relativistic geometry (Minkowski space) that Lisle must presuppose for ASC to be a valid convention in the first place.

The critique concludes that the ASC's definition of an anisotropic speed of light is not a change in physical speed but merely a change in the coordinate time-stamping of events. When properly analyzed within the framework of special relativity, the time it takes for light to reach Earth, a physical quantity derived from the invariant speed of light, is not altered by the convention. Thus, the ASC model, despite being a mathematically valid coordinate choice, does not actually solve the Light Travel Time Problem by making the universe genuinely appear younger; it merely re-labels the time coordinates without changing the underlying physical age of the distant objects.


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