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 ature and its laws are
not without tell-tale signs of awesome workmanship. Are these
yet more clues to our mysterious origin?
A Most Peculiar
Planet
While few of us have ever ventured beyond the life-giving protection
of Earth's atmosphere, it's common knowledge that deep Space
is a hostile zone for living things. And life is so fragile...living
things thrive only within very narrow limits of temperature range,
atmospheric chemistry, barometric pressure, gravity, availability
of liquid water and nutrient-rich food supplies.
Few may realize
the elaborate network of critical physiological processes required
for life to exist on a geologically-active rock —hurling
through Space. Environmentalists are now discovering how a deficiency
in any one area can produce detrimental effects that could spell
disaster for all life. Yet our Habitat exhibits an amazing resiliency
and capacity for abuse.
But this is not
the case with our sister planets. None of them is even remotely
equipped to sustain life.
What makes
Earth so unique?
Everything.
To begin with,
we occupy the perfect lane as we race around our Sun and
we're the perfect distance from it. Venus, for example, on our
left, is far too hot and Mars, on our right, is far too cold.
Earth has the
ideal tilt on its axis (23.5 degrees), which gives us our Seasons.
If Earth had no tilt, we'd have just one season year 'round (bor-ing).
Earth has the
right mass, gravitationally, to hold onto an atmosphere rich
in oxygen and nitrogen (and a few other things). If Earth had
less mass, its wonderful atmosphere would drift off into Space.
If we had more mass, we'd have too much gravity (and we would
look funny). Rather than walking —we'd probably be crawling.
Here's a sample
of just some of the peculiar features that make our Planet so
unusually habitable:
- Ideal plate
tectonics; Earth is the only planet that recycles its crust
- Ideal atmosphere shields us from cosmic rays and insulates
us from frigid Space with a thermal blanket.
- Ideal planetary physics (ideal mass, ideal orbit, ideal rotational
velocity)
- Ideal climate regulator (the Moon)
- Ideal weather
- Ideal temperature (59 degrees)
- Ideal energy source (the Sun)
- Ideal meteorite deflector (Jupiter)
- Ideal replenishable food sources
- Ideal magnetosphere
The Earth maintains
many ideal life-support factors...the list goes on and on. Some
deserve particular notice, for example:
The
Greenhouse Effect
We
all know that Space is an airless and frigid place. So how does
the Earth stay so warm? By the Sun's heat? Not exactly...
The Sun emits
radiation in the forms of visible light rays, X-rays and cosmic
rays. The high wavelengths of the Sun's visible light rays allow
them to burn right through Earth's atmosphere before bouncing
off the surface back into Space.
But as the sun's
rays reach the Earth's surface (i.e., trees, soil, oceans, etc.),
Earth performs a really
cool trick...
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Earth's surface
actually transforms the wavelength of the sun's
rays —from visible light to infrared light.
Then, as the
infrared rays are deflected off the Earth's surface (towards
space), their slower wavelength cannot penetrate through
the Earth's atmosphere. These deflected rays are then trapped
and absorbed (by CO2 and water vapor)
as heat energy. |
...and Earth
redistributes that heat all over its surface. (Now is that
cool - or what!)
- Summary
- The list of
favorable phenomena unique to our home planet is inexhaustible.
In the hostile void of deep space this raises the question: How
did all the peculiarly favorable aspects of our Habitat come
to be?
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- There are only
two possibilities...
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1. Either the
Universe created itself and our Habitat is merely a highly
improbable development by chance evolution... |
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2. Or, the Universe
was in fact, supernaturally created by a Higher Entity. |
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- Let's explore
these possibilities further, but first let's consider...
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- Does Nature
Provide Any Clues as to Our Origin?
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