Our Awesome Universe

As the Stardust NExT spacecraft passed Comet Tempel 1 yesterday I couldn't help but feel some pride because  Lockheed (my employer) built Stardust right here in Denver.  Since Stardust's launch in 1999 it has traveled 3.5 billion miles collecting data and samples from Comet Wild 2, back to Earth to jettison off a container with those samples and then out to Tempel 1.

What I also feel as I reflect on space and it's vastness is an awe for our universe.  It's hard to even comprehend the size and vastness of our universe.  There are about 100 billion stars (10¹¹) just in our own Milky Way galaxy and the average distance between those stars is 30 trillion miles. The number of stars in just our galaxy is about the same as the number of grains of sand on all the beaches on Earth.  We are just one of between 100 billion (10¹¹) and 1 trillion (10¹²) galaxies in the universe with each having about an average of 100 billion stars.

To give even more perspective on the shear size of the universe it's helpful to understand light years.  A light year is the distance light travels in a year or about 5,900,000,000,000 miles.  The closest star to us is about 4.2 light years away and the edge of the universe is 15 billion light years away from us!  Absolutely staggering.

When you think about that vastness and how small we are in comparison it makes the fact that we exist at all pretty amazing.  As the universe is studied more it's becoming apparent that life is much more rare than has been thought in the past.  What scientists, astronomers, and astrophysicists are finding is that conditions have to be pretty precise to support life in our universe.  Here are just a few of over 120 constants that need to be present for life to exist on Earth:

1. Oxygen makes up 21% of our atmosphere.  If it were 25% fires would flare up spontaneously.  If it were 15% we would suffocate.
2. If the atmosphere were more transparent not enough solar radiation would reach Earth.   If it were less transparent we'd get too much solar radiation.
3. If the gravitational relationship of the Earth and the moon were greater, tidal effects on oceans, rotational period, and atmosphere would be too great.  If it were less orbital changes would effect climate.  Either case would make life impossible on Earth.
4. If carbon dioxide levels were greater than they are we'd burn up.  If there were less plants would not be able to perform efficient photosynthesis and we'd suffocate.
5. If gravity were any different at all our sun wouldn't exist.
6. A slight variation in the speed of light would alter the other constants and life wouldn't be possible.
7. If Earth's rotation took longer that 24 hours temperatures would be too great between night and day.  If rotation was shorter wind velocities would be too much.
8. If the lightning rate were more there would be too much fire, if less there wouldn't be enough nitrogen in the soil.
9. The Earth's axis tilt is 23 degrees.  If it were different either way temperatures would be too extreme.
10. If Jupiter were in a different orbit the Earth would be bombarded by space material.  Jupiter's gravitational pull sucks in this material and keeps it from hitting Earth.

These are just 10 of the constants needed to support life on any planet in the universe.  Astrophysicist Hugh Ross has taken all the constants into account and calculated that there is a 1 in 10¹³⁸ chance that these constants would exist by chance for any one planet in the universe.  To put that number in perspective there are only 10⁷⁰ atoms in the entire universe.  In essence there is no chance that our universe and life on Earth could have happened by chance.  A universe like ours requires design and intelligence.

If Bill came home and saw a note on the counter that said "Bill, everything to make dinner is on the counter."  And right next to the note were spaghetti noodles, a jar of spaghetti sauce, bread, and a bottle of wine, would Bill think "I wonder how the pencil fell just right to make this note.  Maybe the window was left open and it blew the pencil around on the page.  And it's great that all these ingredients rolled out of the cupboard and were everything I needed for dinner!  I am so lucky!"  We'd think Bill had lost his mind because there was obviously intelligence and thought behind the note and the selection of the ingredients.  So why would it be any different for the universe which is much more complex than a note and 4 ingredients for a spaghetti dinner?

The universe has all the earmarks of design and intelligence and none of the earmarks of chance and blind luck.  The designer of our universe would have to be powerful beyond belief and intelligent beyond our comprehension.  There is only one intelligent being that fits that description and it's God.

Resources
I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist, by Norman L Geisler and Frank Turek (Ch. 4 Divine Design)
The Privileged Planet, by Guillermo Gonzalez and Jay W Richards (Also a documentary)
Why the Universe Is the Way It Is by Hugh Ross