“It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in.” (Is. 40:22)
Scattered through the Bible are examples of prescience—that is, scientific statements made by Scripture that far exceed the general knowledge of the time. Obviously, the Bible isn’t a science textbook, however when it does speak about the creation it does so with stunning accuracy, even before the scientific method confirmed what the Bible already declared to be true.
For example, in the above verse, Isaiah reveled that the earth was round. The book of Isaiah was written some 700 years before Christ, at least 300 years before the Greek philosopher Aristotle suggested in his book On the Heavens that earth might be a sphere. Two-millennia after Isaiah, it was this and other Scriptures that inspired Christopher Columbus to sail around the world. He wrote: “It was the Lord who put it into my mind. There is no question the inspiration was from the Holy Spirit because He comforted me with rays of marvelous illumination from the Holy Scriptures.”[1]
Recently, astronomers Guillermo Gonzales and Jay Richards authored the book The Privileged Planet in which they explain how the universe has been fine-tuned for life on earth. Let me cite just three examples concerning the proportions and placement of our little blue orb.
· The earth is 93 million miles from the sun, stationed in a “goldilocks zone.” If earth were slightly closer to the sun, then most of our water would evaporate and life couldn’t exist. By the same token, if earth were slightly further away, she would be frozen tundra also making life untenable.
· Earth is the perfect size too. If she were any smaller, our magnetic field would be weaker and “solar winds” would quickly strip our atmosphere down to nothing so we would end up looking desolate like the surface of Mars. Consequently, if earth were any larger, she would exert a more powerful force of gravity, preventing any water, methane or carbon dioxide from escaping our atmosphere. Indeed, if earth were larger our atmosphere would be thicker, more viscous and oxygen-breathers would suffocate.
· Then there is Earth’s 23.5-degree axial tilt. This is also key to life because this tilt lets most of the continents experience four seasons. If this tilt were altered to the slightest degree either way, it would cause surface temperatures too extreme for life.
Sir Fred Hoyle, the renowned British astrophysicist and mathematician who popularized “the Big Bang,” spent most of his life as an atheist. Yet when he examined the different settings that regulate our planet and the rest of the universe, he admitted:
“A common sense interpretation of the facts suggests that a super-intellect has monkeyed with the physics, as well as the chemistry and biology, and that there are no blind forces worth speaking about in nature . . . The numbers one calculates from the facts seem to me so overwhelming as to put this conclusion almost beyond question.”[2]
I like to imagine a huge control panel for all the cosmological constants in the universe. The board is full of dials and settings that can be tweaked – the gravitational force, speed of light, number of stars, etc. When scientists look at the cosmic control panel, they find that every dial, button and leveler has been specifically fine-tuned so that life is possible. Truly, our planet is not some lucky evolutionary accident. A loving, super-intelligent Creator sits above it all.
Our response should be gratitude,
praise, and humility. Next time you feel the warm sunshine on your back, or marvel
at the vibrant colors of a Maple tree in fall, or enjoy the sweetness of a juicy
peach simply thank Him! -DM
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