Recently,
NASA astronomers were giddy with excitement as they announced the discovery of
seven new planets. A Wall Street Journal headline read, “Seven Earth-Size Worlds Discovered Orbiting
Nearby Star.” The article then reported:
“Seven
alien worlds about the size of Earth have been discovered orbiting a tiny
nearby star, and six of them appear warm enough that liquid water—necessary for
life—could exist on their surfaces . . . Called Trappist-1, the dwarf star,
located about 40 light years away from Earth in the constellation Aquarius, is
so small that it is barely bigger than Jupiter, the largest planet in our own
solar system. Yet it is home to the largest collection of Earth-sized planets
found in the galaxy so far.”
One
of the scientists involved in the study said, “The star is so small and cold
that the planets are temperate, which means they could have liquid water and
possibly life on their surface.”
The
article concludes, “The discovery adds to mounting evidence that billions of
such worlds may exist in the Milky Way galaxy. The new findings indicate that
these planets are even more common than previously thought. All told,
astronomers have confirmed the existence of more than 3,500 exoplanets.”[1]
For the disciples of
Darwin and the heralds of humanism, discoveries like this hold out the hope that one
day mankind will find an answer to one of the deep mysteries of the universe—are
we alone?
The secular scientist is
searching for the answer to this question for several reasons. For one, they
are committed to an evolutionary worldview. As such they believe that life came
about in the universe without God’s help. If extraterrestrial life was found on
another planet this would confirm their assumption that on a cosmic scale what
happened here on Earth wasn’t really all that special. Statically speaking,
they reason, with all the trillions of stars and planets in our universe there’s
bound to be another like ours teeming with life.
Another reason why astronomers
are so enthralled with finding other life-sustaining planets is because many
believe that humanity will likely need an insurance policy in case we are threatened
by a rogue asteroid or we destroy our planet by nuclear war. Elon Musk, the CEO
of SpaceX, who has promised a Mars colony by the year 2030, explained, “We’ve
got all our eggs in one basket, and that’s a terrible risk-management strategy.
We should diversify our planetary portfolio to insure against the worst—and
soon. The dinosaurs became extinct because they didn’t have a space program.”[2]
The problem with
discoveries like the seven planets orbiting Trappist-1 is that they are so far
away. The seven sisters of Trappist-1 are 40 lightyears away from earth,
meaning that even if we had a Millennium Falcon that could reach the speed of
light we couldn’t get there for 40 years! This is simply not a trip we are
going to make anytime soon.
The Bible offers good
reasons to doubt that intelligent life exists on other planets. Scripture
points out the absolute centrality of the Earth and gives us no hint that life
exists elsewhere. Just look at the creation account in opening verses of
Genesis. God made the earth habitable on days 1-3 before He created the rest of
the planets and stars on day 4. The rest of the universe exists as a support
system for the main stage of Earth where God’s Divine drama takes place.
Admittedly, the Earth is
but an astronomical atom among the whirling constellations, only a speck of
dust among the ocean of galaxies, nebulae and stars.
So this begs the question,
why did God make the universe so big? Why so much extra space if it’s just us?
Atheist astronomer Carl Sagan famously said, “The universe is a pretty big
place. If it’s just us, seems like an awful waste of space.”
However, Christian
astronomer Hugh Ross points out in his mind-bending book, The Creator and the Cosmos, that
the universe must be as big and as dense as it is for life to exist anywhere. According
to Ross, “for life to be possible in the universe, that is to obtain the stars
and planets necessary for life, the value of the mass density must be fine-tuned
to better than one part in 1060.” Ross goes on to explain, “An
analogy that does not even come close to describing the precarious nature of
this cosmic balance would be a billion pencils all simultaneously positioned
upright on their sharpened points on a smooth glass surface with no vertical supports.”[3]
This incredibly precise
ratio of space to matter must be balanced for the building blocks of life to be
present. I’m not sure I understand all of this but, simply put, given the laws
of physics in our universe, we need a universe as massive as it is for the
construction of the materials that make life possible on our planet. If the
universe were much smaller or bigger, we would not exist. It turns out the
universe is not full of wasted space. In fact, if the universe were not this
massive, Carl Sagan and the rest of us could never even have been here to
reflect upon it. Thank God we live in such a big universe.
And of course, the massiveness of the universe is
a testament to the greatness of our God. When we consider the power of the Lord
who made all this, we cannot help but feel humbled. Truly, the God who created
this universe is glorious and worthy of praise. As Palm 19:1 says, “The
heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands”
(NIV). -DM
[1]
Robert Lee Hotz, “Seven Earth-Size Worlds Discovered Orbiting Nearby Star,” The Wall Street Journal, 22 February
2017 <https://www.wsj.com/articles/seven-earth-size-worlds-discovered-orbiting-nearby-star-1487786401>
[2]
Jason Dorrier, “Elon Musk Is Right: Colonizing the Solar System Is Humankind’s
Insurance Policy Against Extinction,” Singularity
Hub 15 October 2014, <https://singularityhub.com/2014/10/05/elon-musk-is-right-colonizing-the-solar-system-is-humankinds-insurance-policy-against-extinction/>
[3]
Hugh Ross, The Creator and the Cosmos (Colorado
Springs, CO: NavPress, 2001), 151.
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