Posted on 06/10/2005 8:04:42 PM PDT by CHARLITE
For a few moments there, “Intelligent Design” seemed to be making headway.
Two weeks ago, the Smithsonian announced it would screen the movie, “The Privileged Planet,” produced by the Discovery Institute, at the National Museum of History on June 23rd. The outcry in the New York Times and The Washington Post was immediate. The Smithsonian was caving to religious fundamentalists. “While `The Privileged Planet’ is an extremely sophisticated religious film, it is a religious film nevertheless,” pronounced The Post in an editorial entitled “Dissing Darwin.”
Within a week, the Smithsonian had yielded to liberal opinion. It cancelled its “co-sponsorship” of the event and gave back Discovery’s $16,000 contribution – although the movie will still be shown on schedule. It’s a fitting resolution. Thanks to the Times and Post, Discovery will now have an extra $16,000 with which to spread its heresies.
I haven’t seen the movie, but I did read the excerpt from the book, The Privileged Planet, in the March 2004 issue of The American Spectator. I don’t know whether I’d call authors Guillermo Gonzalez and Jay Richards’ argument “religious.” “Creepy” would seem a better term.
Some of “Privileged Planet” is legitimate science. Gonzalez and Richards are addressing the question of whether life exists elsewhere in the universe. We know there are billions of galaxies, each of them containing somewhere between 100,000 and 1,000,000 stars. (The Spectator made a telling typographical error when it said there are “1022 visible stars.” They meant to say “1022.”) With astronomers now finding that planets are fairly common around nearby stars, the odds that there is life out there somewhere seem reasonably good.
Not so fast, say Gonzalez and Richards. Instead they approach the question from a different angle. There may be billions and billions of stars with billions of planets circling around them, but how many of these planets are right in the earth’s sweet spot – the “temperate orbit” where temperatures range only between 0o and 100o so that life can survive? How many have a liquid ocean, rather than icebergs or infernos? How many have a moon that massages the oceans so they circulate nutrients and even (so G&R claim) stabilize the parent planet in its orbit? How many suns are in the mid-range of their galaxy, where they aren’t overwhelmed by cosmic radiation or starved for lack of it?
Fair enough. These are legitimate arguments that illustrate the earth’s very unique position in relation to the solar system and the galaxy.
But then Gonzalez and Richards start talking about other strange “coincidences.” How many planets have a clear atmosphere so they can look out on the stars? they ask. How many have a moon that is exactly the size of the sun in its sky? Without that, say Gonzalez and Richards, we wouldn’t be able to see a perfect solar eclipse. “Newton was able to examine the spectrum of sunlight because of the solar eclipse,” they argue. “Einstein’s Theory of Relativity was only proved by observing the bending of starlight during a solar eclipse.”
All this leads them to one conclusion. Not only is our planet “designed” for life, it is also “designed” with a “purpose”—to breed a species just like ourselves capable of looking out on the rest of the universe and discovering its secrets.
Now wait a minute. Are you trying to argue that not only did God put us here on earth but also arranged the size of the sun and the moon so that Einstein’s theory of relativity could be verified? This seems a little far-fetched to me. I don’t think even firm believers in Hinduism, Christianity, or any other religion who would go quite that far.
Instead of arguing that everything on earth has been “designed” for some mysterious “purpose,” I think it’s much more instructive to look at some of God’s little errors. The one that has always struck me is the density of ice.
One thing we learn right away in elementary physics is that gas is the least dense state of matter, liquids are in the middle, and solids are the densest. That’s because the molecules are loosely associated in gases, adhere together somewhat in liquids, and are tightly bound together in solids.
There is one glaring exception, however—ice. Unlike any other element or compound, H2O is lighter as a solid—ice—it is as a liquid—water. No other substance has this property. Is this a big deal? It certainly is. It just so happens that it made the evolution of life possible.
If ice were heavier than water, it would sink to the bottom in a lake or shallow sea. Then, more water would freeze on the surface and sink again and soon the whole body of water would be frozen solid from top to bottom. Anything living in that lake or shallow sea would die. Since most life originated in water, living forms never could have survived.
Instead, ice floats. Why? There doesn’t seem to be any real explanation. I’ve always thought it was evidence that God was willing to admit His mistakes and bend the rules when it counted. When He was finished designing the fundaments of the universe – gases, liquids, and solids – He said, “Oh, darn, I forgot. This isn’t going to work.” So, He made that one exception. All solids shall be denser than their liquids except water. That way life could evolve.
Is there a better explanation? The Darwinian “anthropogenic” view now popular in scientific circles, would say, “Of course ice has to be lighter than water. Otherwise we wouldn’t be here to observe it. Therefore, Q.E.D.” At the other end of the room, the “Privileged Planet” people would say, “It has to be more than coincidence. Things like that don’t just happen. It’s proof of Intelligent Design.”
Personally, I prefer the explanation offered in the Book of Job. “Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?” The ways of God are still more mysterious than any of us can comprehend.
NOTE: You’ll notice I haven’t even gotten around to mentioning Charles Darwin, who is supposed to be the target of “Intelligent Design” theory. Next week I’ll talk about whether complexity theory supports ID—as Dan Peterson argues in this month’s American Spectator— or whether it indicates something different.
William Tucker is a contributing writer for TAE Online.
"How old is the universe? No one can answer that. How old is our milky way? Again no one can answer that. We will probably never know in our lifetimes if there is any intelligent life out there. No one can say for certain if there is or isn't. We can believe it, or not believe it. With billions of stars and other solar systems out there, to think we are the only ones, seems narrow minded.
Why would we not think or believe that there is other intelligent life? Maybe life (civilizations?)that are a million lifetimes older than us. Are we to be the new Flat Earth Society? Every day brings us closer to the answers, did we know there was another planet beyond Pluto until recently? (Sedna). We have begun to reach out into the universe, this is only the begining, to go where no man has gone, in hopes to find other intelligent life. When (if) we make contact that will surely present additional questions to ponder and answer. Will we stop there? I doubt it, mankind's quest for knowledge is endless. Will we ever develope the technology to do all those things?"
Yes, we will develop all of the technology someday to travel to distant parts of our galaxy. Some laws of the universe can be bent and overcome, look at gravity for example. Planes defy the universal law of gravity. Perhaps we will be able to bend time at some point in our human existance. I think that if other alien beings could visit earth, they probably would but perhaps at the end of all the physics and laws, perhaps their is only so far our minds and technology can go. What I am saying is that it may be physically impossible to travel to one end of the universe to the other to definatively find out if other "intelligent" forms of life exist. We know we can acclerate particles faster then light, but what about a human being? If a particle can appear at two places at once when accelerated past the speed of light, what about a human? And what would both identical people be thinking about?
I believe the bible and the story of creation. In reading the entire bible cover to cover I can say that their is information that was revealed to men by God and their is some information purposely left out. Scriptures talk about scrolls being rolled up and revealed at certain times in the future. Perhaps we have intelligent human or human like cousing out there after all, but we are not to know about this until man has reached a certain stage of maturity. Revelations and other parts of the bible do talk about a "recreation". What will the new creation be like? God just says it will be new and better but says little else about the details.
But we're the only one with CHOCOLATE.
"No, Jesus is not a liar. AFAIK he did not discuss these things. God is the Lord of the Universe. He works in mysterious ways."
Agreed Jesus is not a liar. Powerful and awsome God maybe, the 'mysterious ways' thing bugs me now. I have had a relationship with God and it does not seem mysterious to me at all. The numbers of the universe and the complexity is staggering. God is a fantastic artist, no doubt. The human race has discoveries to make and to me, God simply paces our ability to wield certain mental ability for such discoveries until we are ready.
bump
Thanks for the ping!
Are you claiming this shape on the planet's surface proves that the planet was, at one time, inhabited?
In many cities these days to say that you can 1,022 stars means it's a particularly clear night. I doubt you can see that many stars in LA on an average summer night.
We're it folks.
I have been counting stars for decades. Some clear nights, in winter when it is dark, only 30 stars can be seen here, although a couple hundred would be more commonly seen. It is rare to see anything dimmer than 3rd mag. The Andromeda Galaxy is still visible even then, but only because I know exactly where to look.
Before Darwin, they WERE in charge.....
We do???
Question: Do you believe in unguided evolution?
They MUST?
And that's why there are SO my suckers buying Lotto tickets!
What a scam!
Take in X amount and pay out about 40% of it!
1022
Some of us can figger out
10^22
Hemmriods of Mars??
Ok, Conan, now ZOOM out to see the WHOLE thing.
What that is, is a village of some sort, with rectangular structures and terraced landscape, and you can see that the left (leeward) corners of the buildings are still square and the right (windward) corners have been severly weathered.
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