Any reasonable extrapolation of chemical or physical sources of heat would have appeared to be exhausted within a very short time.
It was the search for a potential source of energy that led to speculation about the atom being somehow the source of essentially limitless quantities of energy.
A hundred years ago and more, great effort was expended to gather information. Expeditions were mounted to track the path of solar eclipses and to photograph them, including spectral photography, which spreads the light into its constituent frequencies.
It was that effort that led to the discovery of an element in the atmosphere of the sun, that had not yet been discovered to exist on Earth, the element Helium, named after the sun (Helios).
When the notion came up that matter was essentially a form of condensed energy, and that under certain circumstances it could be made to evaporate again, into vast quantities of energy, it was a world-wide "Ahah!" moment.
That was the key. Einstein put the numbers into an equation, now familiar, E=mc2.
It has now been calculated, using this formula among others, that the amount of energy being expended by the sun in all directions, not just the one we happen to occupy, is the equivalent of four million tons of hydrogen disappearing from existence every second!
Now, if you want to contend that this is all so much hoohaw, you will have the obligation to come up with another explanation, at least equally tenable. Good Luck.
I, for one, am satisfied that this is a correct and useful explanation.
As to the cooling of the Earth, similar confusion did reign for quite a long time. You have apparently forgotten to account for the effect of disintegrating radioactive components in the Earth's core, that contribute to its apparent retention of primordial heat.
Should you doubt these numbers, it may be incumbent on you to offer an explanation for why radioactive material exists at all. A theory that the Earth and all existence came into being only six thousand years ago does not require the existence of radioactive materials, but there they are, nonetheless. (Actually, a great deal the less, for many of them have already decomposed, but you know what I mean, I hope!)
What are you talking about? Please show where I have EVER proposed that that is 'so much hoohaw'?
This is an example of the sick data creationists are putting on the web. This is sort of like the old line where the sun couldn’t be older than 6000 years because it would burn out in only a few thousand years. I think the YECers have finally dropped that one. Don’t you agree that the below is really OTTT and totally discounted by present observations and theories?
It would be nice if you posted what I said so I would have some idea what you are talking about. Not nice just to go on a rant accusing people of something false.
Please post where I ever said that. I have degrees in Nuclear Engineering a have taken graduate physics classes. I have a little understanding of the universe.
Apparently you have forgotten about tidal friction heating the earth.