Outer space is a dangerous place!
In Part 1 we shared how Earth is annually bombarded by at least 400-900 millisieverts of dangerous x-rays, high energy gamma radiation, and cosmic particle radiation from distant galaxies such as M-87. And, if that wasn’t bad enough, our Sun can deliver over 5000 millisieverts of radiation during a solar flare event if directed towards earth. These values stand in grim contrast to the recommended annual exposure limits of 1-5 millisieverts for the general public and 50 millisieverts for radiation workers.
We’re bombarded by radiation, and yet, here we are discussing the data.
How? Why wasn’t mankind and all of life on Earth irradiated and extinguished millennia ago?
Those questions are the topic of this paper. We live on an amazing planet exquisitely crafted to support life—with God’s fingerprints all over it. But perhaps even more amazing is that God recorded His actions over 2500 years ago—that unlike the other planets, He specifically crafted Earth to host life.
So, is this just a bizarre, theological/astronomical coincidence? That is your decision to ponder.
God’s Word states that if we examine His creation with the intent to learn and understand, we will observe His attributes and they will lead us to Him (Romans 1:18-21; Psalm 19:1-2). We proposed in Part 1 to test these two verses rather than debate the “Old Earth/Young Earth” arguments. Why, and how?
Astronomers spend their lives examining the heaven’s details with the intent to understand—but strictly through an Old Earth perspective. Do their observations lead them to God? I’ll tie this together in the following sections.
Are you a “Trekky?”
Many viewers of the original Star Trek television series became so passionately dedicated that they never missed a show. I was one.
The series featured an advanced spacecraft, its crew, and the exciting adventures of deep space exploration. The ship had a powerful defensive armament termed the “deflector shield” –an invisible energy barrier that deflected incoming “bullets” such as “photon torpedoes” during an attack.
Earth also has a “deflector shield” that surrounds her and protects us from the massive doses of incoming radiation discussed earlier. (A true “Trekky” will appreciate my analogy.) However, regardless of Star Trek, just know that we live on a special planet protected by two distinct shields that quench and deflect radiation. I’ll discuss these below.
“Star Trek”
On September 6, 1966, an American science fiction series named “Star Trek” debuted and aired for three seasons on NBC.1 It featured the exploratory missions by a 23rd century spacecraft—the USS Enterprise that roamed through our galaxy. Other take-offs from the original series have aired, but the roots of a true Trekky” extend back to 1966.
Earth’s Magnetic Field
If you remain skeptical about a planet-sized deflector shield/energy barrier, then perhaps a glance at Figure 1 will convince you. This figure from NASA depicts Earth’s magnetic field and “magnetosphere” (the extension of the magnetic field into space) and demonstrates their influence on incoming radiation from a solar particle event (SPE—see Part 1 of this section).
We noted earlier that Earth has a huge, solid, iron-nickel core and a liquid outer core. Although the source of the magnetism is quite complex, it is believed to be associated with electric currents among the iron alloys in the inner core and convection of fluids in the outer core.2 You could think of the magnetic field as a giant bar magnet that extends from the South- to North Pole. Regardless of the mechanism, we have a monstrous magnetic field for such a small planet. And, as charged (ionic) particles from the sun encounter the strong magnetic field, they are either captured or deflected, leaving life on Earth relatively unexposed.
Earth’s magnetic field is just one amazing attribute of our planet. But a second planet-sized shield—our atmosphere— also protects us from other forms of incoming radiation.
Earth’s Perfect Atmosphere
A mid-60’s comedian once poked fun at college professors and technical intellectuals.3 He claimed their brilliance was reflected simply by their philosophical questions—questions such as, “Why is there air?” He stated that even a PE major knows why air exists, ”It’s there to breathe after a 40-yard dash, or to blow-up deflated volleyballs.”
The comedy skit depicts the attitude of many today, as well: Air is there to breathe … it provides our oxygen … we wouldn’t be here without it. And these points are true. But Romans 1:20 challenges us to look deeper and seek to understand. And once again, if we do, we witness God’s fingerprints.
Our atmosphere includes a perfect combination of two major gases – nitrogen (78%) and oxygen (21%), making up about 99% of our air’s mixture. The composition is critical. Much more oxygen and the atmosphere could become explosive. Much less nitrogen and the nitrogen nutrient cycle would be disrupted. But there are several other amazing factors:4
- The atmospheric pressure is just large enough to trap liquid water at Earth’s surface; otherwise our water would vaporize and be lost to space;
- It warms the surface through heat retention, but does not retain enough heat to cause a runaway greenhouse effect as on Venus;
- It greatly reduces the temperature extremes between day and night; and,
- It provides enough carbon dioxide (CO2; 0.4%) to allow photosynthesis but not enough to drive a greenhouse effect.
The list goes on and on, but we’ll focus on one additional atmospheric parameter that is also critical for life on Earth—its function as a second radiation shield.
The composition of our atmosphere is precisely tuned to block out harmful radiation bathing us from outer space. And not only does it absorb the harmful wavelengths, but it is transparent to those wavelengths we need for life. Figure 2 shows another plot prepared by NASA that demonstrates the depths of penetration through our atmosphere of various radiation frequencies. Remember from Part 1 how M-87 is spewing high energy gamma and x-ray radiation into space? Notice the depth that gamma radiation penetrates our atmosphere. It barely reaches the stratosphere, about 25-50 km (15-30 miles) above Earth’s surface. And this is about twice as far as the x-ray radiation penetrates. The atmosphere is opaque to these two types of dangerous radiation.
In contrast, life on earth generally requires visible light and near-infrared radiation for our survival. Plant photosynthesis requires visible light, as do our human bodies. Vitamin C production is just one example of humankind’s dependency on light energy. And how do we communicate over distance? With radio frequencies—and our atmosphere is transparent to visible light and radio waves.
Is this all just a colossal coincidence? Do scientific agencies recognize and acknowledge the amazing virtues of our atmosphere and magnetic field that guard life on earth? This is what NASA says:
In addition to a protective atmosphere, we are also lucky that Earth has a magnetic field. It shields us from the full effects of the solar wind and GCR. Without this protection, Earth’s biosphere might not exist as it does today, or would at least be limited to the subsurface.5
“Lucky?”
With all these amazing factors that protect and promote our existence, and we’re just “lucky?” Many scientists feel otherwise. Paul Davies is a highly regarded theoretical physicist at Arizona State University and has held research positions at many prestigious universities. He has an Old Earth perspective and as early as the 1980’s he was writing books and making the following statements:6
Evidence for design of the universe and of earth for human life could rightly be described as overwhelming.
As we’ll see in Part 3, we’ve barely scratched the surface of the unimaginable “lucky” breaks we have here on this planet.
God’s Word provides a very different explanation for how and why so many natural criteria just “happen” to work together to promote mankind’s existence. It’s one of my favorite verses in the Bible and stuns me each time I read it (italicized explanations of the Hebrew verbs are included – JRC).
Isaiah 45:18
For this is what the Lord says – He who created (bara – spoke into existence from nothing) the heavens, He is God; He who fashioned (yatsar – to squeeze/mold into shape, esp. as a potter) and made (asah –to make; from pre-existing material) the earth, He founded it (kuwn – arranged / established): He did not create (bara – spoke) it to be empty, but formed (yatsar – potter) it to be inhabited.
Can you see the incredible wisdom of God and His relentless effort in “forming Earth to be inhabited?” And we’ve only considered radiation!
As I mentioned above, the list goes on and on. And that’s the theme of our third and final part of this paper. We will briefly summarize other examples that point to Intelligent Design of this planet and expand our view to observe His fingerprints in our moon, our solar system, and throughout the universe itself.
1Wikipedia; Star Trek; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Trek
2 Wikipedia; Earth’s Magnetic Field; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth%27s_magnetic_field
3Bill Cosby’s third comedy album, Why is There Air? (1965)
4Wikipedia; Atmosphere of Earth; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atmosphere_of_Earth
5 NASA Why Space Radiation Matters; https://www.nasa.gov/analogs/nsrl/why-space-radiation-matters
6 Paul Davies (1983); God and the New Physics; Simon and Schuster.
Figure 1. Artists’ rendition of the deflection of an SPE (solar particle event) directed toward our planet by Earth’s intense magnetosphere. (From Wikipedia Commons; http://sec.gsfc.nasa.gov/popscise.jpg).
Figure 2. Plot of the electromagnetic radiation frequency range showing depths of penetration through the atmosphere. Only the visible (optical portion) and the radio frequency wavelengths penetrate our atmosphere and reach Earth’s surface. (Credit: STScI/JHU/NASA)
