Pondering the Universe

The Observable Universe as portrayed by Prof Neil Turok  of Perimeter Institute. Earth is right at the centre.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f1x9lgX8GaE&t=544s

A narrow consideration of the scientific data available to us on the Universe tends to portray an intimidating picture of planet earth (and her denizens) as mere puny nonentities.  A broad holistic consideration will however paint a different picture, one confirming the Scriptures that the heavens declare the glory of God – evidently unto mankind.  Two Considerations extracted from LSF’s presentation on the subject are presented below. To watch the full presentation on Youtube, check: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cueQEm7_64A

I. A CONSIDERATION OF SIZES - The Heavens tell stories written for Man:

According to the Bible, the lights in the heavenlies are designed to serve as illumination, signs, and measure of time for observers on the Earth (Gen. 1:14).  Evidences clearly show that the Earth is perfectly positioned to receive and enjoy starlight and make meaning of celestial events. For instance, solar eclipses are possible only because the Sun and the Moon have exactly the same size when viewed from earth. The planets in the Solar System have identical brightness and sizes as the stars (and the occasional comets) such that they can all be seamlessly incorporated into the tools for writing stories to be read from Earth - stories pre-written from the dawn of time using natural laws and constants with preset values!  [Hence on earth, all luminous objects in the sky, apart from the sun and the moon, can all be effectively described as “stars”).

For the stars to play the roles indicated in the Bible, they must be infinitely numerous. Yet they are not to overwhelm earth with too bright light (night sky) or heat, or other radiations. Consequently, they MUST be precisely flung out as they are at astronomical distances, and be of enormous sizes.   The difficult-to-imagine vastness of space is vividly portrayed in a BBC documentary at https://wwsw.youtube.com/watch?v=2iAytbmXYXE

II. A CONSIDERATION OF NUMBERS

There are some 100 thousand million stars in the Milkyway, our home galaxy, which is one of the 100 -200 billions galaxies in the Universe.   Rather than be intimated by this humongous number however, we should also consider that there are some 37 trillion living cells in one single Man. In short, You are literally a galaxy on your own!  And each of those cells contain DNAs. This key molecule for life is not just the most complex structure in the Universe, it is of intimidating dimension. An incredible engineering feat intricately stacked 2 metres of DNA into a micrometer size package!  Stretched out and placed end-to-end, the DNA in the cells in a single man will then be some 108 billion kilometres in length, about twice the diameter of the Solar System. (https://www.sciencefocus.com/the-human-body/how-long-is-your-dna/)

 

With trillions of Man and other life forms (each with trillions of cells) residing on planet Earth, it is extremely naïve to take the planet as no more than an “insignificant speck of blue dot” in space!

 

Rather than assume the conclusion of Carl Sagan (see video) that:

“Our planet is a lonely speck, in the great enveloping cosmic dark.  In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves…..”,

 

we must understand the implications of “LIFE” and further acknowledge there are enough “hints” that an eternal external Genius is indeed interested in the planet.

 

This position is what informs LSF’s positions on lifestyle and environment-health issues!