Are We An Accident, or a Creation?

Last night I read a story to my just 7 year old granddaughter. It was about a worm. The illustrations were charming. The theology was startling. The worm has been told by his mother that Gaia (Earth) is our mother and that all things come from her. No warnings, just there it is. God has been replaced in young reader's lives by the more politically correct Gaia.

Later in the day, I finished The Priviledged Planet, a wonderful book by Guillermo Gonzalez, that summarizes all the astronomical and astrophysical data that has been collected by numerous satellites and Hubble observations since 1965. The book starts with Carl Sagan's "Blue Dot" observation of a satellite image from outer space showing the insignificant size of the little dot, Earth. Sagan's observation morphed into the Copernican principle, now stated as "we are not special". In excruciating detail, Gonzalez and philosopher co-author Jay Richards, translate the learnings of astronomical studies since Sagan that show that it is becoming quite apparent that the opposite of the Copernican principle is true.

The planet we ride on is one of very few habitable locations in the universe. It is strategically located to be what Gonzalez calls the best workbench in the lab from which to study the cosmos. Sagan was wrong. We're quite special. In fact, we may have been placed here by design!

The details are many, covered in over 300 well-illustrated pages. We seem to be located on a terrestrial planet with sufficient carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and heavy metals to sustain life, which is extraordinarily rare. The planet has a thin crust plate tectonics system that keeps the heavier elements produced by our sun from sinking into the earth's core. The planet/moon relationship and core mixing allows an electromagnetic field to shield us from damaging gamma and other harmful radiation from our sun and others. Earth is the proper distance from our sun to allow liquid water. It holds the planet at the proper angle sufficient sun to maintain a life-friendly climate. We have an atmosphere clear enough to allows stellar observation, a moon and near planets that protect us from passing comets and asteroids. The moon is precisely the right size to allow total solar eclipses without which we could not understand the sun. We are located within our galaxy in the best location for maximum visibility of the whole universe. There is sufficient ambient "silence" in this part of the galaxy to notice the background "sound" of the "big bang". We are truly blessed. And, it is becoming apparent to those not blinded by ideology, that the big bang may have had a banger.

Consider the complexity of this story as opposed to the Gaia worship of today's children's literature. It is easy to see the slide we are taking into illiteracy and "science based" superstition that turns us from both our civilization and from its creator.

Gonzalez was hounded for this work by Darwinists who do not want to allow the examination of naturalist premises or be encouraged to fit of their story to any "hint" of intelligence in the universe. His film, beautifully narrated by John Rhys-Davies for Discovery, was boycotted by the Smithsonian staff, who attempted to squelch a showing in DC followed by a discussion. The scientists in the documentary have all been hounded by the scientific establishment for their heresy, of course.

What a strange time we live in!