Part Two: A Designed Earth and Universe

We find that we must be in the right location in the galaxy…that we’re inside the Circumstellar Habitable Zone of a star…that we’re in a planetary system with giant planets that can shield the other planets from giant comet impacts…that we’re orbiting the right kind of star that’s not too cool or not too hot…that we’re on a planet that has a moon that can stabilize the tilt of its axis…that we’re on a planet that’s a terrestrial planet…a planet that has a crust that’s just thick enough to maintain plate tectonic activity [which regulates a planet’s interior temperature, recycles carbon, and mixes chemical elements essential to living organisms]…that has enough heat in its interior that it’s still circulating its liquid iron core so it can generate a magnetic field [which is essential to complex life]…that has an atmosphere that has enough oxygen to allow for complex organisms to survive…that has enough water and enough continents that allow for the diversity of life and an active biodiversity that you need to support complex creatures such as ourselves…” Guillermo Gonzalez in The Privileged Planet Web PDF:  http://www.illustramedia.com/scripts/ThePrivilegedPlanet-web.pdf.

“Copernicus taught us that the sun did not revolve around the earth (a mistaken medieval view known as geocentrism- interestingly, this view did not come from the Bible, as some think, but from Greek and Egyptian sources). The neo- or modern- Copernican view also teaches that there is no “special” place anywhere in the universe. However, observation of our position in the universe would indicate that we are, indeed, a special place.” (Bates, 2004)

Here are just a few of the finely adjusted variables that allow for our existence (Bates, 2004, pp 112-114):

• The “redshifts” of surrounding galaxies indicate that our galaxy is in fact at or near the center of the universe.

• The position of our solar system in our galaxy is just right. If we were nearer to the center of the galaxy, the brightness of surrounding stars would overwhelm us, but if we were farther out, the night sky would be too dark for navigation or for marking the seasons.

• Our planet spins at the correct speed needed to sustain life. If it spun more slowly, day and night would be longer which would allow for inhospitable temperature extremes (days would become hotter, and nights colder). If it spun faster, it would produce more violent weather conditions.

• Our planet has the right amount of tilt to produce our seasonal changes- a greater tilt would result in the ice caps melting, but less tilt would mean a lesser seasonal cycle.

• We are the correct distance from the sun to make temperatures hospitable for life; closer would obviously be too hot, farther away too cold.

• Our planet is the right size to produce the correct amount of gravity to keep water in a liquid state (necessary for life).

• Our moon is at just the right distance to create tides that help to replenish marine plants, but not so close that the tides become big enough to endanger our land masses.

“The laws of science, as we know them at present, contain many fundamental numbers, like the size of the electric charge of the electron and the ratio of the masses of the proton and electron….The remarkable fact is that the values of these numbers seem to have been very finely adjusted to make possible the development of life. For example, if the electric charge of the electron had been only slightly different, stars either would have been unable to burn hydrogen and helium, or else they would not have exploded….it seems clear that there are relatively few ranges of values for the numbers that would allow the development of any form of intelligent life.”  Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time, 1988.

“It is false to say that you cannot be a true scientist if you believe in creation. The very founders of the scientific method and the scientists who developed some of the most important foundational principles of modern science were primarily creationists. Creationists find themselves in the company of great men of science such as Robert Boyle, George Washington Carver, Michael Faraday, John Ambrose Fleming, James Joule, Lord Kelvin, Carolus Linneaus, Matthew Maury, Joseph Clerk Maxwell, Gregor Mendel, Samuel F. B. Morse, Isaac Newton, Louis Pasteur, William Ramsay…Many scientists claim to have received their inspirational ideas directly from the Bible. There are also many creation scientists today who are top in their fields. Their belief in creation and a young earth has not proven to be a hindrance, but actually an asset to their scientific endeavors.” (CLE January 21) “…The founders of modern science like Copernicus and Kepler and Galileo and Newton himself believed that the universe was the product of a mind- that it was intelligible to beings like ourselves because the universe itself was the product of an intelligent being.”  Jay Richards, in The Privileged Planet Web PDF: http://www.illustramedia.com/scripts/ThePrivilegedPlanet-web.pdf.

Designed Life

“… the biological cell is not a “simple lump of protoplasm” as long believed but a microcosmic processor of information and synthesizer of proteins at supercomputer speeds…. In each of the some 300 trillion cells in every human body, the words of life churn almost flawlessly through our flesh and nervous system at a speed that utterly dwarfs the data rates of all the world’s supercomputers…. Interpreting a DNA program and translating it through a code into a physical molecule, the cells collectively function at almost a thousand times the processing speed of IBM’s new Blue Gene/L state of the art supercomputer.” Gilder, George. Evolution and Me. National Review. July 17, 2006.

“Actually, if a reptile leg were to evolve into the wing of a bird, it would become a bad leg long before it could become a good wing.” CLE (A Closer Look at the Evidence) January 13^th..

“It is astounding that over a billion fossils have been found, yet there is no undisputed transitional form between very different types of animals or even animal features (such as a reptile’s scale turning into a bird’s feather).” CLE January 20^th.

“Evolution is not promoted because of the overwhelming evidence supporting this concept. Nor is creation rejected because it is a poor explanation of life’s origin. Creation is simply ignored by most scientists because they have been trained to ignore this possibility.” CLE February 1.

“Scientists have discovered a number of key enzymes within the cell whose only job is to find and correct errors in the genetic code. These enzymes faithfully correct mistakes, thereby preventing mutations. Yet we are expected to believe that these mistakes and mutations are what cause evolution to happen. Why would a system evolve whose sole function is to prevent the very mechanism which supposedly drives evolution (mutations)? Life could not accurately reproduce without this genetic proofreading. Scientists have no adequate explanation for how these specific enzymes could have evolved by random processes. Everywhere we hear that things have “evolved”, yet no explanation is given for how specific biological functions, such as this mistake-correcting mechanism, could have evolved.”  CLE July 15.

“DNA is the master code which directs cells to produce proteins. Each cell in our body is made from thousands of different and very specific types of protein. This master code also directs the production of special proteins which make more DNA in order to reproduce an exact copy of the cell. In other words, to make DNA, you have to have DNA in the first place! How could DNA have developed when the existence of coded information on the DNA molecule is required to produce DNA from the start?” CLE July 30.

“The simplest conceivable form of life (e.g. bacteria) contains at least 600 different protein molecules. Each of these molecules performs specific functions by fitting into other molecules shaped in exact three-dimensional spatial arrangements. These proteins work like a key fitting into a lock-only a specifically shaped protein will fit. Yet there are multiple trillions of possible combinations of protein molecules and shapes. How could the exactly required shape find the exactly correct corresponding protein in order to perform the required cellular function? The mathematical probability that the precisely designed molecules needed for the “simplest” bacteria could form by chance arrangement of amino acids (these are the chemicals that link up to form proteins) is far less than 1 in 10 to the 450^th power. Most scientists acknowledge that any probability less than 1 in 10 to the 50^th power is considered an impossibility. One wonders why this “impossibility” is being taught as a “fact of science” to millions of schoolchildren each year.”  CLE August 7.

A Young Earth

The Theory of Evolution- specifically macro-evolution and abiogenesis- requires an “old earth” to appear credible at all. In other words, if the earth was fairly young and not billions of years old as they say it is- then all of those “lucky accidents” (the change from nonliving matter into intelligent life) look even radically more impossible. Does the evidence support an “old earth”?

“Neither creation nor evolution can be scientifically proven, since neither is repeatable. Evolution and creation are both belief systems. As thinking people, we should look at all the facts and put our faith in the one which is best supported by the majority of the evidence. For example, it is interesting to note that of the hundreds of possible dating methods, over 90% indicate an earth far younger than would be needed for any evolutionary process to have taken place. Yet it is presented as a fact that the earth is billions of years old, and children are only exposed to those few evidences that support this belief. We are not following the principles and methods of true science when we consider only the few methods which seem to indicate an old earth, while ignoring the majority of the evidence which indicates that the earth is young.” CLE August 1.

• Scientists have been able to measure the earth’s magnetic field since 1835, and are able to calculate the rate at which the earth’s magnetic field is decreasing. The magnetic field is decreasing so quickly, that if the earth is much more than 10,000 years old, no life could have existed because the magnetic field would have been too strong.

• High pressure pockets of oil, gas, and water exist under our planet’s surface, but these high pressure pockets shouldn’t exist if the rocks are millions of years old. Rock layers are permeable, and the resulting leakage should have decreased the pressure to far below the level it is today.

• It has been calculated that if the earth is over five billion years old, its initial rate of rotation  would have been twice as fast as it is now, which would have cause the ancient earth to bulge much more around the equator, but no physical evidence has been found to support that the rotational rate was ever that fast.  

• Temperatures at the earth’s core are far hotter than would be expected if the earth were truly billions of years old. Radioactive decay can’t account for this unless the earth is much younger than is assumed.

• It is estimated that basically no DNA could survive longer than 10,000 years, but evolutionary scientists are finding DNA in samples that have been dated tens to hundreds of millions of years old, which casts strong doubt on the assumptions of current dating methods. 

• Similarly, scientists have found proteins in dinosaur bones dated many millions of years old, too old for proteins to still be present.

• “Polonium is a radioactive element which decays within seconds to months after its formation. It leaves very distinctive discolored rings when this decay happens inside of granite…The only way that [these] radiohaloes could exist within granite is if these massive rock layers, as much as a mile thick, also formed and cooled almost instantly.” CLE August 9.

• Estimating the age of the ocean by measuring the amounts of certain elements present (aluminum, antimony, calcium, chloride, cobalt, etc) and comparing them to the rates at which these elements are observed to be flowing into the ocean- dates the ocean as far too young for evolution to have occurred.

• The most obvious reason for the volcanic activity that is still occurring in our solar system (Io, one of Jupiter’s moons) is that our solar system is not nearly as old as scientists have assumed.

*Internet References are cited in the text

Bates, Gary.  Alien Intrusion. (Master Books, Green Forest, AR,  2004).

Comfort, Ray. Scientific Facts in the Bible: 100 Reasons to Believe the Bible is Supernatural in Origin. (Bridge-Logos, Orlando,  FL, 2001).

Gilder, George. Evolution and Me. National Review. July 17, 2006.

Hawking, Stephen.  A Brief History of Time. (Bantam Books, New York , NY, 1988).

Kleiss, Richard & Tina. A Closer Look at the Evidence. (Search for the Truth, Midland, MI, 2003).