Why Earth is Unique

God made our world simply AMAZING. The more I learn about it, the more I realize it proclaims His majesty!

I receive a quarterly magazine called "Answers"; it's written by the company Answers in Genesis and you might recognize the founder's name: Ken Ham. In addition to the magazines and the books written by them, they also built the Creation Museum, which is another widely known conservative Christian tourist attraction that teaches Biblical creation in a literal seven day timespan. I was raised with the same values they teach, and so I appreciate their work greatly and find it all agrees with the Bible, which is the ultimate source of knowledge and wisdom.

I was reading the latest issue and found a pretty cool article about Mars, and how it used to contain streams and lakes and probably even an ocean. But while the article was about Mars, I learned a lot of things about Earth, which is what I want to talk about!

Many people wonder how Mars could possibly have had water on it. After all, it's much too cold and desolate to even suppose it contained water. However, take a closer look and you'll find dried lake beds and river beds. The Mars rovers have taken soil samples of these river beds and found clay; the kind that can only come into being through contact with, you guessed it, water. The frozen caps in the northern and southern areas of Mars contain carbon dioxide and solid water, and a permafrost covers the surface of Mars... even at the equator.

How is this significant to our own home planet? The once active volcanoes on Mars spewed water vapor, as well as greenhouse gases, into the Martian atmosphere. This caused rain! Many people assume that the sole factor to obtaining water is temperature. However, barometric pressure is another crucial factor to water's existence. A dense and heavy atmosphere is needed to both retain heat AND provide the barometric pressure (caused by the weight of the atmospheric gases pushing down on the surface of the planet due to gravity) to allow water to exist in its liquid state. And we all know liquid water is essential to survival.

The problem comes with atmospheric deterioration. Don't worry, God made Earth well enough that it isn't going to affect us. But what happens is that, on Mars, rain cooled the atmosphere, as well as took gas out of the atmosphere (and pulled it to the surface). The fallen rain then froze due to cold temperatures. When the clouds cleared, the sun's UV rays pierced through the thin atmosphere and broke up (similar to hydrolysis) the water (and other gases trapped with it) into their individual components (i.e. water became hydrogen and oxygen). Then, because of Mars's low gravity, those gases escaped into space. The whole process took a little while, but now we have a Mars left with very little atmosphere at all.

Earth still has it's atmosphere after 6000+ years! How can this be? God created Earth to have an ozone layer (located in the stratosphere) which prevents the sun's UV rays from entering the atmosphere and causing the rain to break up into it's gaseous components. In addition, Earth's gravity is such that it can keep gas held tightly against its surface. Volcanoes spit more water vapor into our atmosphere, but because of plate tectonics, volcanoes cannot spit TOO much water vapor out because volcanoes don't remain in the same spot too long. There is a LOT of science behind why Earth works the way it does. Books can be (and have been) written on all this stuff. It's amazing.

All that said, the water cycle here on earth is unique. And, the carbon cycle is made possible by the water cycle! The carbon cycle is the flow of carbon in our world; basically the death, life, and 'rebirth' of living things, like plants and animals and humans (dead things release carbon into the ground allowing plants nutrient rich soil to grow in). Carbon is the building block for life. And, without plants and animals working in unison to produce carbon dioxide and oxygen, we wouldn't have greenhouse gases to trap in heat and keep temperatures high enough to allow liquid water. The mass of the Earth restricts gas from escaping into space (the pull of gravity), allowing clouds to form and rain to fall. Simply put, the carbon cycle and water cycle are mutually dependent. They support each other.

If you didn't pay attention through all that science jargon, don't worry. You don't need to understand the fine details behind how our planet works, I just find it fascinating! So many times, evolutionists point to one specific piece of evidence and declare that it happened by random (or even divinely encouraged) chance. But, when you look at the WHOLE of creation (I just barely scraped the surface here) you'll see that random chance, including the claim that some make where God used evolution as means of creation, is ridiculous. You must have perfect situation after perfect situation and evolutionists are always pushing back their timescales to fit their presupposed 'millions of years' theories.

Scientists will agree that if something has a chance smaller than 1:10^15 (a 1 in 1,000,000,000,000,000, or a one in ONE QUADRILLION chance), then it can be declared impossible. The odds for our universe, ALL factors considered (there are too many to count!), FAR exceeds that limit! There are not enough atoms in the universe to calculate the probability of random chance producing such a perfect universe. That means that if you set aside one atom to represent the chance of our universe happening randomly, then take ALL the other atoms in the universe (there is a lot, let me assure you) and set them against the one, that is the chance of the random creating what we see today. This is blow your mind stuff.

Evolutionists are often baffled by new discoveries and always must adapt their theories. But those of us who believe in Intelligent Design, well, it all seems to fit perfectly, even if we don't understand all of our world yet. An infinitely wise God created a near infinitely complex universe. It makes sense, really. 

So what do we do about it? It's not just that God created our world wonderfully, but He INTERACTS with it as well! He sent His Son to die for a relatively insignificant species. However, we are NOT insignificant in His eyes! We were created to rule over the plants and animals of the earth, providing their care and protecting their habitats. God created us with authority, but He is in authority over us. He loves and cares for you. He seeks your companionship and chases after your heart. He holds you close and sees you weep. He is not distant, but He is close. Our world is wonderful because the way He made it, but it is MORE wonderful that He chooses to be in it. He resides in YOUR heart. YOU are a temple of the Holy Spirit. And He loves you more.

Tell the world of this great love. Don't let the lies this world throws at you twist your mind. Hold fast to truth. Remember God's promises, and remind Him of His promises! He does not forget, but He likes to hear His children remind Him of what He said He would do. He is Redeemer, Healer, Savior, Provider, Almighty, Friend. He loves you. Tell the world. It's broken because of us, and now we can make a difference. Choose this day to #LiveItLikeJesus.