Are We Just Lucky - Or What?

The 20th century was witness to the most - and most far-reaching - scientific discoveries of any century in human history. We have gotten more information about our Earth and its location in the universe than in all the past centuries combined. And we have discovered that - just as in the real estate market - the three most important factors are location, location and location. In fact, that location is so special as to provide a powerful piece of evidence that our galaxy, our sun and our solar system must be supernaturally designed for the benefit of us Earthlings.

More than 400 years ago, a man named Nicolaus Copernicus took a first fateful step in science by demoting the Earth from its exalted status as the center of the universe and consigned it to a less “special” location. His astronomical observations, people were told, discredited parts of the Bible that supposedly claimed the Earth’s cosmic centrality.

Acceptance of the Copernican Principle was the first claimed victory of modern science over “religious superstition.” Since then additional science discoveries seem to have pushed us into ever more obscure regions of the universe.

Although we are not the “center” of the universe, science has shown that the Earth does reside at an extremely special position in the universe - one uniquely suited for the sustenance of LIFE.

Cosmic Position

Astronomy has ascertained that nearly all galaxies possibly capable of supporting life reside in cosmic neighborhoods too crowded with other galaxies to allow for life forces. In other words, nearly all galaxies of the right age (old, but not too old), size (large, but not too large) and type (currently spiral in structure) to contain a life-supporting planet find themselves within a packed cluster of galaxies or adjacent to a super-large galaxy.

If the Earth’s galaxy were in such a neighborhood, the huge gravitational tugs from such galaxy neighbors would inevitably pull our life-supporting planet outside its zone of habitability.
Fortunately for us, however, Earth’s galaxy is positioned in a sparsely populated part of the universe, with no giant galaxy neighbors. Nor does it have problematic dwarf galaxy neighbors. Small galaxies are gobbled up gradually by larger galaxies, but our Milky Way galaxy has been exceptionally inactive in gobbling up any nearby smaller galaxies. This relative inactivity has been a major factor in stabilizing our galaxy and the orbit of our sun about the galactic center.
ARE WE JUST LUCKY - OR WHAT?

Our Sun’s position in the galaxy

Our Sun is also especially situated for life within our galaxy - approximately halfway between the Milky Way’s center and its edge.

If our solar system were any closer to the galactic center, Earth would encounter harmful radiation. Also, nearer the galactic center, neighboring stars would be so densely packed together as to guarantee the inevitable pulling of Earth’s orbit out of its habitable zone.

If located farther from the galactic center, our solar system would, necessarily, contain fewer than sufficient heavy elements for the formation of a planet capable of supporting life.

And there’s still more to the rightness of our solar system’s positioning. It is important for life that our solar system is situated in between two of our galaxy’s spiral arms. Within each of the galaxy’s spiral arms, the star densities often are high enough to disrupt the orbits of planets like Earth. Moreover, supergiant stars often reside inside the spiral arms - supergiants that would expose earth-like planets to radiation intense enough to damage the planet’s ionospheric and atmospheric layers.

Also the spiral arms are loaded with gas and dust. If we were located within a spiral arm, such gas and dust would block our view of anything but the nearby stars and gas and dust clouds. But the Earth’s location between spiral arms permits us to see the other parts of our galaxy and any of the other several hundred billion galaxies in the universe.
ARE WE JUST LUCKY - OR WHAT?

The Sun’s Orbital Position

Another way our sun is special is that it deviates very little from its nearly circular orbit about the center of our galaxy. Nor does it deviate much at all from the plane of our galaxy’s disk. Meanwhile, virtually all the other stars in our galaxy exhibit rather large up-and-down, back-and-forth, and side-to-side random motions away from their normal orbital paths. These deviations keep occurring because most stars have acquired various wobbles from their many gravity-influenced close encounters with other stars and giant gas and dust clouds.

Still, our sun does deviate. However its tiny up-and-down deviations actually keep us from getting too exposed to deadly radiation, from the galaxy’s nucleus and from supernovae remnants. Plus we now understand that the sun’s tiny motions also play a crucial role in keeping our solar system from getting too close to the spiral arms of the galaxy.
ARE WE JUST LUCKY – OR WHAT?

Earth’s Orbital Position

A way that our Earth is special is its unique position within our solar system. About half-of-a-percent closer to the sun, it would experience a runaway greenhouse effect. More water vapor and carbon dioxide would collect in the atmosphere. This in turn would cause the surface temperature to rise even more releasing more water vapor, etc.

If the Earth were a half-of-a-percent more distant from the sun it would suffer a runaway freeze-up. More snow and ice than normal would form. This would reflect solar energy much more efficiently causing more cooling and more snow and ice, etc.
ARE WE JUST LUCKY – OR WHAT?

The Moon’s Orbital Position

Right now, the moon spirals away from the Earth by a few centimeters more every year. Yet it still remains at a distance from Earth that helps our planet maintain its life-supporting rotation axis at a firmly held tilt of 23.5 degrees.

In addition the moon at its current distance helps maintain Earth’s tidal patterns so as to yield the greatest possible life forces along all our continental shelves.

What if the moon were any smaller or larger, any closer or more distant? The simple answer is that we could not exist. The Earth would rotate at a very different rate. The Earth’s axis, like that of its neighboring planets, would slowly shift from being perpendicular to the solar system’s plane to being parallel with it. Astronomers discovered in the 1980’s that advanced life requires the characteristics of a small planet orbited closely by a large, single moon.
ARE WE JUST LUCKY – OR WHAT?

Big Brother Jupiter

Asteroid and comet watchers assure us that if the giant planet Jupiter were any farther from Earth, or any less massive than it is, our planet would be in serious trouble. The Earth would be so frequently blasted by asteroid and comet collisions that advance life forms would not survive long. Jupiter, with its powerful gravity, acts as a shield, absorbing or deflecting these objects. On the other hand, if Jupiter were any closer to Earth, or any more massive than it is, Jupiter’s gravity would pull Earth outside the “safe zone” of habitability and stability in which we now orbit. Most giant planets apparently drift in close to the stars they orbit, but our amazing Jupiter has remained in an ideal (for Earth life) orbit.
ARE WE JUST LUCKY – OR WHAT?

The Ozone Layers are Just Right

According to studies in 1997, it’s not just one ozone layer that is crucial to life on Earth – it’s three! In the mesosphere (the outer layer of our atmosphere), a just right amount of ozone is needed to regulate the life-essential chemical reactions and chemical circulation occurring there. In the stratosphere (the middle layer), too little ozone would allow too much ultraviolet radiation to get through to Earth’s surface. Many plant and animal species would be exterminated as a result. Too much ozone in the stratosphere, on the other hand, would so diminish the amount of UV radiation reaching Earth’s surface as to disturb nutrient production for plants and certain vitamin production for animals. Finally in the troposphere (the nearest-to-us layer), a minimum ozone level is needed to cleanse the atmosphere of natural pollutants. Yet too much ozone in the troposphere would disrupt animal respiration. Moreover, the circulation of ozone between the three different atmospheric layers must be fine-tuned in a systematic way.
ARE WE JUST LUCKY – OR WHAT?

Just the Poisons We Need

Believe it or not, a lack of arsenic will kill you! Yes, arsenic is just one of the 12-plus “poison” elements our environment needs (in proper amounts) to maintain the proteins essential for advanced life. Too much arsenic, of course, will kill. Scientists are more and more realizing this wonder: Earth’s abundance of numerous poisons is carefully fine-tuned so that life can continue. Too little of these, and life functions cease. Too much, and life functions cease. The Earth has been the recipient of just the right balance of all these vital poisons.
ARE WE JUST LUCKY – OR WHAT?

A Truly Privileged Generation

We cannot help but be awed by how wonderful it is for us citizens of the 21st century to be personal witnesses to so many new and powerful evidences for a Creator God. Copernicus thought he was refuting the God of the Bible by downgrading the centrality of the Earth. But it turns out that in understanding our SPECIAL location in the universe, we have even more evidence for a Designer God.

No other generation of humanity has seen so much proof. In this explosion of new evidences, we find yet another sign of God’s fingerprint and God’s glory.

It makes perfectly good sense for God to pile so much new evidence upon modern humanity. For one thing, more people are alive today than ever. For another, we have more power, thus more susceptibility to pride. The book of Ezekiel states that one of God’s tools for cracking through human pride is demonstrations of His power, glory, and truth. The greater the pride, then the greater the evidences for His existence and operation.

There is more than divine design evidence at stake here, however. The more fine-tuning astronomers uncover in the universe, the more we should realize how weak and foolish we are compared to the One who designed this vast and complex universe in which we live.

The fact that such an awesomely powerful, intelligent, and caring Creator so exquisitely engineered the universe for the benefit of us human beings should motivate us much more seriously and carefully to consider why we are here.

The choice is simple, and the intellectually honest can see the options clearly: if we are but a cosmic accident, then we really are just the kings of this temporary heap we call Earth, soon to be gone, and what we do is of no consequence.

On the other hand, if the “location, location, location” of the Earth was finely designed, finely tuned, finely protected for human life – as the astrophysical data now so emphatically declares – then we are subjects of the most high God. And what we think, say and do is of ultimate, eternal significance. What we ARE and what we are to BECOME is in the finely tuned purposes of God.
IT IS NOT JUST LUCK !!

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