Enjoy Our Beautiful Earth
ASTRONOMERS have seen that mankind’s home is just a tiny speck in the immeasurable reaches of a boundless universe. Nowhere else in the physical universe has life been found. Only on planet Earth have just the right conditions existed.
Moreover, we can enjoy life on this beautiful globe. How pleasant it is to feel warmed by the sun on a cold day! Who of us is not moved by a spectacular sunrise or sunset? Our sun, of course, does more than merely delight our senses. It is vital to our very existence.
For countless millions of years, the gravitational force of the sun has held the earth and other planets in stable orbits. And, as students learn in school, the whole solar system moves in orbit around the center of our Milky Way galaxy. But in our galaxy the sun is just one of more than 100 billion stars making this journey together.
The Milky Way galaxy is bound in a cluster of about 35 galaxies. Larger clusters contain thousands of galaxies. Our solar system likely would not be so stable if it were located in a much larger, dense cluster of galaxies. But, as it is, few regions of the universe “are as amenable to complex life as ours,” state Guillermo Gonzalez and Jay W. Richards in their book The Privileged Planet.
Is the existence of life on this planet the product of blind chance, the fortuitous result of some part of the “big bang”? Or is there a grander meaning to life on this beautiful planet Earth?
Many people have come to the conclusion that our earthly home was specifically designed to support life.a Centuries ago, a Hebrew poet called attention to the earth and the heavens. He wrote: “When I see your heavens, the works of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have prepared, what is mortal man?” (Psalm 8:3, 4) This poet believed that there must be a Creator. Is that a reasonable conclusion in our scientific age?
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“From a distance, the Earth shimmers like a blue jewel in the darkness of space,” states The Illustrated Science Encyclopedia—Amazing Planet Earth.
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Globe: U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Washington, D.C./NASA