Under Construction
Our Created Earth: Uniquely Designed for Life by David V. Bassett, M.S., CEM Staff Writer The formula for life on Earth involves a multitude of planetary parameters working together in a specific and delicate balance. So precise is this prescription, a mere absence or slight alteration in any one of the countless interrelated factors and mutually-dependent variables upon which life hinges could prove cataclysmic. Consider these more noticeable requirements upon which all life on our world depends: (1) Abundance of Liquid Water --- This flowing treasure is unique in the combination of physical and chemical properties it manifests as the only possible solvent and medium for living cells. More than 70% of the planet is covered by some 326 million cubic miles of liquid water, enough to submerge a perfectly smooth and spherical Earth to a depth of 8,500 feet (over 1.6 miles!!). (2) Cleansing Ocean Tides --- The ebb and flow of Earth's tidal circulation (in response to the lunar gravitational pull) purifies the world ocean and the continental shorelines which serve to enclose its waters. (3) Ideal Planetary Size and Mass --- With an equatorial diameter of 7,927 miles and a mass equal to nearly 6.588 sextillion (10 ^ 23 = billion trillion) tons, the Earth is able to provide the perfect gravitational attraction and optimum atmospheric pressure for living organisms. (4) Life-Sustaining Atmosphere --- It has been said of the Earth that "the existence of its inhabitants hangs upon a thin and delicate sheath of gas that envelops the planet like the skin of an apple." Though over 99% of our atmosphere (composed of 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and 1% other gases) lies below 50 miles in altitude, it still is able to (a) provide the necessary oxygen crucial for animal and human respiration, (b) preserve acceptable temperature ranges while avoiding life-threatening extremes of heat and cold, and (c) protect from incoming extraterrestrial debris and (UV) solar radiation. (5) Protective Magnetic Field --- Supplemented by the Van Allen radiation belts, the ionosphere, and the ozone layer as interior shields of defense, the Earth's magnetic field not only protects us from cosmic bombardment of harmful particles and high-frequency waves, it is also responsible for facilitating cellular communication and directional location. (6) Proper Orbital Shape --- With a circumference of almost 600 million miles, the Earth's orbit around the Sun is nearly circular in order to minimize extreme temperature variations. (7) Perfect Orbital Radius --- Earth's 93 million-mile-average distance from the Sun (typically referred to as one astronomical unit or 1 A.U.) allows our planet to have an ideal surface temperature of 58 degrees Fahrenheit and an average ocean-water temperature of 45 degrees Fahrenheit. In fact, in terms of insolation (i.e., incoming solar radiation), this orbital radius positions our world at the optimum location for life in the entire solar system. (8) Orbital Speed and Duration --- With an orbital period of exactly 365.256 days, which the Earth can accomplish by racing through space at an incredible 66,600 mph (over 18 miles/sec !!), our planet's seasonal length is conducive for agriculture.  (9) Angle of Rotational Axis --- Also playing a role in Earth's favorable pattern of climate, the 23.5 degree tilt on its planetary axis permits the four annual seasons and, in the northern hemisphere, increases the amount of suitable land area and fertile soil needed for summer cultivation of crops. (10) Rate of Planetary Rotation --- Earth's sidereal day of 23 hours, 56 minutes, 4.09 seconds allows for proper, uniform heating and cooling of its spinning surface as well as the re-circulation of its atmospheric winds and ocean currents in the global hydrologic cycle. The tolerances for life are extremely narrow, and if there are any other planets in the universe, it is very unlikely that any of them could have life, due to the extremely rigid conditions necessary for life to exist. The mathematical odds that all of these and other essential conditions happened by random chance are indeed astronomical -- in fact, beyond all probability.
Dr. Michael Behe is a genetic scientist from Lehigh University. The man is clearly brilliant, and a genuine scientist to a fault. His research led him to propose the concept of "irreducible complexity, and was wonderfully illustrated in the DVD: "Unlocking the Mystery of the Origins of Life". I was dismayed to see the recent PBS program "NOVA" attempt to belittle this man and his research. His conclusions, genuinely deduced via the scientific method, were downplayed in the NOVA program to appear as though he were a dolt, acting upon blind faith in a divine creator. Not so the case. The show depicted a rendition of the Dover Pa. courtroom drama where the presiding judge struck down the notion that "Intelligent Design" was actual science, proclaiming that it was tied to faith in a divine creator, and therefore it was a religious tenet. The ACLU played a role also, as did certain others..the "usual suspects" that have led to Columbine and other disasters  common to life in a world where belief in God from a Christian perspective is no longer welcome. Indeed, it is despised by an increasingly secular society. I watched as the PBS show morphed into a witch hunt for "incriminating" text and the slightest insinuation of any notion of "faith"..- how absurd. Methinks the clowns are running the circus.   If you get a chance - see the show. You'll see demonstrated yet again how cheaply and cunningly the smug self-annointed keepers of "science" behave. They'll stop at nothing in their vehement quest to mock people of faith and the possibility that divine intervention could somehow, even remotely be an alternative explanation for all that exists. They insist that the TOE is a proven fact, (it is not) - and eagerly promote it as such. In a most unscientific manner, they refuse to acknowledge that their precious "theory" is also a form of "faith". It is the belief in the unseen/unobserved  and accidental arrival of  living matter from nothing by sheer chance over billions of years. They proclaim that this belief is not faith at all - they insist it is factual reality, and as such must be exclusively "taught" to fertile young minds in the classroom with no competing theories to  hint of a possible design by an intelligent entity. They rigged the deck folks, but seek the truth and you'll find it. No hocus-pocus, no religion, just the bare physical laws and facts. We humans as yet cannot make anything at all apart from the elementary materials we are provided with here on the planet. We didn't invent the elements, and so far, we cannot construct an orange. To "believe" that the human brain is the result of chance  beneficial mutation over eons of time is to believe with a stronger faith than I'll ever have..but this is what we are force-fed and perpetually brow-beaten with ad nauseum. Our kids are thrown the red-meat of Jurassic Park and Barney toys.. It's no wonder that one of the shooters at Columbine wore a T-shirt emblazoned with the message: "Natural Selection", and more recently, the young man who left a suicide note before whacking away at innocent people in a mall with an AK-47. The note said he could no longer tolerate this: "Meaningless existence".. New legislation and battle plans will of course be promulgated from both camps. Objective humans will continue to observe the physical world and cosmos with wonder and awe. The matter is certainly not closed. Call it what it is, because it's plain to see. It's Evolution vs Creation. It's accident or it's intelligent cause and effect.  There's no need to veil it in legal-speak or cloak it in lop-sided arrogance. It is what it is..