A taster article from the October 2010 edition of Faith Alive!:
Consider the earth
- The right distance from the sun: If 3% further away it would be too cold to support life, if 3% nearer it would be far too hot to do so. The planets either side of earth: Venus is too hot – even lead melts; Mars by contrast is too cold – on the equator it is colder than the earth’s south pole!
- The right shape: If elliptical it would change its distance from the sun too greatly to support life.
- The right size: If smaller it would not have enough gravity to be able to hold onto the correct atmosphere for life. Mars by comparison is smaller and has lost 99% of its atmosphere. If bigger, we would hold our atmosphere, but you and I would each weigh half a ton!
- The right speed: Rotates once in 24 hours. If it rotated once every 48 hours, it would be impossibly hot at noon and impossibly cold at midnight. If we rotated once every 12 hours, tidal waves and wind speeds would be far too great for humans, animals or trees to survive.
- The right axis inclination: If at right angles to the sun we’d be too hot in parts, too cold in others – there would be a very narrow twilight zone supporting life. If the angle was further we’d have our winters too cold and summers too hot. Our angle of 23º is perfect.
- The ‘big four’ elements: hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and carbon are found in abundance on earth. A planet supporting life needs all these to support life as we know it and life as it could conceivably exist, chemically speaking, anywhere in the universe. The earth has them all, plus seven vital trace elements essential for advanced life: iron (for blood’s haemoglobin), phosphorous (for muscle), potassium, iodine and chlorine.
- The five harmful elements: arsenic, mercury, lead, radium and uranium are very rare. Man digs them up to put lead in exhaust fumes and uranium in bombs, but, naturally, these five are locked deep in the centre of the earth. The eleven essential elements occur in abundance, the five harmful ones are locked away deep under the surface.
Just luck?
Scientists believe our planet is extraordinary in these ‘coincidences’, rare and probably unique within our universe. Atheist scientists agree. Even with all this design some put forward the idea of an ‘intelligent’ planet, an ‘intelligent’ universe!
“Ever since the creation of the world, His invisible nature, namely, His eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.” (Romans 1:20)
The Creator deserves the credit and the glory, not the created!
