Early Earth Enigmas (Part 1)

 The universe appears to have been mathematically designed. Greek mathematician Pythagoras, who taught that the universe was built upon numbers, is known to have said: “Nature geometrizes.”¹

Sir Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi, United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth, is awed: “The believer might wonder, as does Lord Rees, president of the Royal Society, in his Just Six Numbers, at the extraordinary precision of the six mathematical constants that determine the shape of the Universe, such that if even one were fractionally different neither we nor the Universe would exist.”² 

Nobel laureate for physics Steven Weinberg concurs: “Life as we know it would be impossible if any one of several physical quantities had slightly different values… One constant does seem to require incredible fine tuning.” He quantifies the tuning as one part in 10¹²⁰!³ 

Sir James Jeans, knighted British physicist, once remarked: “From the intrinsic evidence of His creation, the Great Architect of the Universe now begins to appear as a pure mathematician.”⁴

Isaiah expresses the same thought in enigmatic terms: “Who has measured the waters in the hollow of His hand, Measured heaven with a span And calculated the dust of the earth in a measure? Weighed the mountains in scales And the hills in a balance? (Isa 40:12, NKJV).

“Anthropic” planet

Earth, a tiny planet, is just one of the countless objects in the vastness of space, yet it is the only one known to support life. Scientists are puzzled by the numerous “accidents” that favor life on earth. Many conclude that Earth is “anthropic” -- that is, “specially made for man.”

Size of the Earth.

The scientific data suggest that the Earth did not randomly come into existence. It has precise measurements that look like the product of careful planning and design. So said God to Job: "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it?” (Job 38:4-5, NKJV).

If the Earth were larger, gravity would be stronger. Hydrogen would be unable to escape from the surface and collect in the atmosphere, rendering the planet inhospitable to life. If the Earth were smaller, gravity would be weaker. Oxygen would escape into space, and animals could have never emerged on the planet.

Location and motion.

Astrophysicist Paul Davies, in his book The Goldilocks Enigma (2007), nicknamed the Earth “the Goldilocks Planet.” It has just the right temperature, neither too hot nor too cold.⁵

Distance from the sun. The Earth lies at an ideal distance from the Sun: 93,000,000 miles (150,000,000 km) away. If the distance changed by as little as 2%, all life on Earth would perish. If the Earth were a bit farther from the sun, water would freeze; a little closer, water would evaporate. Consider our neighbors: Venus, closer to the Sun, is too hot; while Mars, farther away, is too cold.

Earth’s orbit. The Earth’s orbit around the Sun is just about 3% off a perfect circle – just right to keep water liquid. If its orbit were as elliptical as that of Mars, water would alternately boil when we are nearest to the Sun and freeze when we are farthest.

The Earth orbits the sun at a speed of about 66,600 miles per hour. That velocity is perfect to offset the gravitational pull of the sun, as well as keep the earth at an ideal distance. If the speed were slower, the Earth would be gradually pulled toward the sun, eventually having all life scorched to extinction. If faster, the Earth would move farther and farther away from the sun, and eventually become a frozen wasteland.

Rotation and axis. The Earth’s rotation period cannot be changed by even just a few percent. Too slow, the temperature differences between night and day would be too great. Too fast, wind velocities would become disastrous.

The tilt of the Earth’s axis is at a 23.5^o angle relative to the sun. Greater, summers would be much hotter and winters much colder, wreaking havoc on plant cycles and agriculture.

Neighboring objects. For a satellite, the moon is too big for the Earth. And, yet, it is just the right size. Its gravitational pull produces the tides that prevent the oceans from either boiling or freezing. Coastal waters are cleansed, oxygen and nutrients which sustain marine life are replenished, and the tilt of the Earth is stabilized.

The gargantuan planet Jupiter, with its massive gravitational force, occupies a nearby location that is favorable to our planet. Otherwise, Earth would be struck about a thousand times more frequently by asteroids, comets, and space debris.

Atmosphere and magnetosphere.

Oxygen. This life-sustaining gas comprises 21% of the Earth’s atmosphere. Much more than that would be harmful – oxygen could be toxic if breathed too long, as well as make the environment fire-prone.

Ozone, an unstable oxygen molecule, forms a layer in the top level of the atmosphere. The ozone layer blocks most of the sun’s ultraviolet radiation that can burn sensitive skin, damage eyes, and cause cancer.

Nitrogen. This constitutes 78% of the gases surrounding the planet. It dilutes the oxygen, serving as a fertilizer for plant life. Lightning bolts around the world mix nitrogen with oxygen each day, producing compounds that come down to earth with rain and enrich the soil.

Carbon dioxide. The amount of this gas in the atmosphere (3/100 of 1%) is just right – less would not be enough to keep vegetation thriving; more, say 10%, would be fatal to both animals and humans.

All the other necessary elements are present – carbon, hydrogen, phosphorous, sulfur, as well as liquid water -- in the right proportions, as though deliberately combined. Science writer Stuart Clark wonders: “Chemically speaking, Earth is simply better set up for life than its neighbors. So how come we got all the good stuff?”⁶

Magnetosphere. The Earth has just enough internal radioactivity to maintain its iron core in a molten state,⁷ thus creating a protective force field surrounding the planet as far as 40,000 miles out. The magnetosphere protects the Earth against cosmic radiation.

Isaiah tells us why God did all these: “For this is what the LORD says -- he who created the heavens, he is God; he who fashioned and made the earth, he founded it; he did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited…” (Isa 45:18a, NIV). 

The air we breathe

When the Earth became a solid body, about 4.6 billion years ago, the atmosphere is believed to have consisted solely of volcanic emissions -- a mixture of water vapor (85%), carbon dioxide (10%), sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen, with almost no oxygen.⁸

Rise of oxygen.

Around 2.4 billion years ago, new marine microorganisms capable of photosynthesis (primitive plants) began splitting water molecules to produce oxygen using the sun's energy.⁹  

Subsequently, oxygen escaped from the oceans to the atmosphere, starting the formation of the ozone layer, which acted as a sunscreen that reduced harmful ultraviolet rays striking the oceans. This allowed photosynthetic bacteria that previously lived in the depths to move up to the surface and increase the output of oxygen.¹⁰

About 100 million years later, organisms with 2-3 different cell types and deriving energy from oxygen appeared. Then followed more complex cells equipped with mitochondria (sausage-shaped structures that produce energy in cells).¹¹ Further increases of oxygen in the air led to the emergence of new air-breathing marine animals approximately 570 million years ago.¹²

Bigger creatures.

The availability of more oxygen greatly enhanced the metabolic efficiency of organisms in extracting nutrients from food and converting them to energy. Many marine creatures grew to enormous sizes. Chambered nautiluses that are eight inches wide today measured nine feet across.¹³ On land, cockroaches were about a foot long. Dragonflies had wings almost three feet in span.¹⁴

Air bubbles in amber (fossil resin from trees) strongly suggest that oxygen in the atmosphere might have been as high as 25%.¹⁵ Then, in the last 10 million years, atmospheric oxygen went down to its present level of 21%. Why?

Some scientists speculate that great fires burned over the earth about 10 million years ago, reducing the number of trees and, consequently, the amount of photosynthesis and oxygen.¹⁶

 

The wonders of water

Earth is the only planet positively known to have liquid water. The most abundant substance on earth, water covers approximately 71% of the planet’s surface.

Water is essential to life. Combined with carbon and certain other key elements, water is the basis of almost all the molecules of living organisms. Fluids primarily made up of water, like sap and blood, carry the vital materials that plants, animals, and humans need to live. Water is an ideal solvent for metabolism as it dissolves the food that sustains living organisms.

Where all the water came from remains an enigma. If the solar system and the Earth had formed from clouds of gases and dust, hardly any water would be found on Earth. Any water this close to the Sun would have been vaporized and blown away by the solar wind, like water vapor in the tails of comets.

 

Law of nature altered?

Most liquids contract as their temperature goes down. So, too, water. As it gets colder, water in rivers, lakes, and seas becomes denser and heavier, sinking and forcing the lighter, warmer water beneath to rise to the top. Yet, on reaching precisely 7^oF (4^oC) above zero, the process is inexplicably reversed! Water begins to expand until frozen into ice, its volume increasing by 10%. Being lighter, ice floats above liquid water.

The ice on the surface serves as an insulator that keeps the water below from freezing, protecting organisms beneath. If water did not stop contracting just before freezing point, ice would be heavier and sink to the bottom, where the sun's heat could not melt it. Eventually, layers upon layers of ice would pile up, turning the Earth into an ice planet.

Did God recalibrate a law of nature to make Earth hospitable to life? This reminds us of what He said through Jeremiah: “For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (Jer 29:11, NIV).

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¹Quoted by Migene Gonzalez-Wippler, A Kabbalah for the Modern World, 1974, p. 16

²Jonathan Sacks, “Genesis and the origin of the Origin of the species,” The Times (London), August 29, 2008

³Steven Weinberg, “Life in the Universe,” Scientific American, October 1994

⁴Sir James Jeans, The Mysterious Universe, 1930

⁵Paul Davies, The Goldilocks Enigma, 2007

⁶Stuart Clark, “Unknown Earth: Our Planet’s Seven Biggest Mysteries,” New Scientist, Sept. 7, 2008

⁷Gerald Schroeder, The Science of God, 1997, p. 191

⁸Atmosphere, Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia Deluxe 2004

⁹ScienceDaily, Mar. 22, 2006, Internet

¹“Rise Of Oxygen Caused Earth's Earliest Ice Age,” ScienceDaily, May 7, 2009, Internet

¹¹“Oxygen Triggered The Evolution Of Complex Life Forms,” Exo Life, Jan 29, 2004, Internet

¹²Atmosphere, loc. cit.

¹³National Geographic, January 1976; quoted by Dennis Petersen, Unlocking the Mysteries of Creation, p. 100

¹⁴Dennis Petersen, Unlocking the Mysteries of Creation, 2002, pp. 32-33

¹⁵Petersen, op. cit., p. 35

¹⁶“Oxygen Increase Caused Mammals To Triumph, Researchers Say,” ScienceDaily, Oct. 3, 2005, Internet

 

(Excerpted from Chapter 5, Early Earth Enigmas, THE DEEP THINGS OF GOD: A Primer on the Secrets of Heaven and Earth by M.M. Tauson, Amazon.com)

 

 

Primordial Planet Puzzles (Part 7)

A vegetarian world

“And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so” (Gen 1:29-30).

Were plants and fruits alone sufficient to have kept the first men in the excellent health necessary for long and active lives?

A well-rounded diet? Nutritionists name six kinds of nutrients: water, carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, and minerals. The first four are “macronutrients” we must have in large amounts. Much water is needed, since the body is 50-75% water. A lot of carbohydrates and fats are a must for energy; proteins for body tissues. Vitamins and minerals, the “micronutrients,” are taken in minute quantities, but are vital for growth and organ functions.

Plants and fruits have high water contents. Grains, legumes, and rootcrops are mostly carbohydrates. Oil sources, like coconut, olive, corn, soybean, sunflower, supply fats. Fruits and vegetables are rich in vitamins and minerals. But proteins are best obtained from animals as milk, eggs, meat, fish. These are complete proteins containing all the essential amino acids. Cereals, nuts, and vegetables, lacking one or more essential amino acids, are incomplete proteins. A primeval vegetarian diet would not have been well-rounded. Or was it?

Were all the nutrients that the first men and animals needed in the right amounts in the plants and fruits that have since become extinct? The herbivorous dinosaurs were the biggest creatures on earth and lasted for millions of years. The biggest and strongest land animals today are the plant-eating elephants, giraffes, rhinoceroses, buffaloes. Part of the dinosaurs’ diet 248-65 million years ago were leaves of the ginkgo tree, today a “living fossil” in China and Japan. Used for centuries as a medicine, ginkgo is reputed to help improve memory and concentration among those with Alzheimer’s disease. It calls to mind the “tree of life… the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations” (Rev 22:2).

Flesh-eating creatures

In many paleontological digs around the globe, animal bones have been found with manlike fossils. Java and Peking man sites yielded remains of bats, monkeys, rhinoceroses, elephants, wild cats. Hominids ate many herbivores like deer, goats, and oxen, but their diet included carnivorous predators and scavengers such as lions, wolves, bears.

Traders or raiders? Archeologists believe, based on mixed artifacts found, that primitive Neanderthals may have traded with the more modern Cro-Magnons. The May 16, 1996, issue of Nature reported the discovery southeast of Auxerre, France, of Neanderthal fossils with bone and ivory jewelry nearly identical to those of Cro-Magnons. The find suggested that Neanderthals probably bartered with Cro-Magnons.¹⁰⁹

Did they trade with each other or raid one another? Skeletal remains show that Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons lived in a brutal period. There were signs of violence in the form of broken bones, scars, and healed-over bone growths. In particular, there was a high incidence of neck and head injuries. The artifacts could have been spoils of war.

Man-eating men. A French-American team has unearthed evidence of cannibalism at a Neanderthal site in France. The Encarta Encyclopedia tells of hominid and animal fossils that had been butchered the same way: "faunal and hominid remains were subjected to similar treatment. In the case of Moula-Guercy, crania and limb bones of both taxa are broken… Bone fracture is presumably related to processing for marrow and brains in both Homo and Cervus.”¹¹⁰

Other Homo erectus, Neanderthal, and early Homo sapiens (Cro-Magnon) sites piece together the same grisly picture: With sharp stone tools, hominids dismembered and defleshed their kills. They used stone hammers and anvils to break open the big bones for the marrow. Many skulls had been bashed open to extract the brains. Evidence indicates some Neanderthals may have done the same to their relatives.

Signs of cannibalism are present in only a few sites, but because the total number of sites is small, it was statistically a widespread practice.

Day-Age 6-n:

• Circa 57,221 to 28,611 years ago (Duration: approximately 28,611 years)

Day-Age 6-o:

• Circa 28,611 to 13,306 years ago (Duration: approximately 14,306 years)

 

End of Day 6

“And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day” (Gen 1:31-2:1).

Day-Age 6 Summary:

• Total duration (Day-Age 6-a to 6-o): circa 468,735,694 years. (To round figures, 0.8858 remainder from the exponential regression has been added to the remaining 14,305.1142 years, for a full 14,306 years. See table at the end of this chapter.)

 

Day 7: Day of rest

“Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made” (Gen 2:1-3).

Interpretations of Day 7:

• Literal 24-Hour Days:    1 day after man was created circa 6,000 years ago
• Thousand-Year Days:    circa 6,000-5,000 years ago
• Diminishing Day-Ages:  circa 13,306 to 6,153 years ago (Duration: approximately 7,153 years)

 

Shift to 1,000-year “days”?

After the seven-“day” Creation “week,” the flow of time appears to have shifted inexplicably to a dual mode for all, as laid down in 2 Peter 3:8 (“one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day”; cf. Ps 90:4): literal 24-hour days from man’s standpoint, and prophetic 1,000-year “days” from God’s viewpoint.

Thus, both Young and Old Earth Creationists now reckon days as 24-hour periods, but at the same time are subject to God’s 1,000-year “days” in the prophetic countdown.

Countdown to completion.

 In the Diminishing Day-Ages timeline, some 7,153 years were still remaining in 4004 B.C. at the creation of modern man’s ancestor, Adam, before the full 15 billion years could be completed.

Homo sapiens sapiens. The subspecies Homo sapiens sapiens, whose first specimen was Adam, includes all people living today. The braincase of modern man ranges from about 1,000 to 2,000 cu cm (60 to 120 cu in), averaging around 1,350 cu cm (80 cu in),¹¹¹ slightly smaller than those of Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons, but proportional to a less massive muscular build.

The World Book reports that, after scientifically comparing DNA samples of modern men with those of Neanderthals and other extinct hominids, many scientists conclude that the results indicate all people today form a separate species distinct from prehistoric humans.¹¹² (The scientists, however, fell short of saying how the first man came about.)

Homo sapiens sapiens timeline.

·         Circa 6,000-5,000 years ago. God created Adam some 6,000 years ago (4004 B.C.) The wheel was invented around 5,500 years ago (3500 B.C.) in  Sumer, Mesopotamia,¹¹³ where an early writing system in the form of pictographs also appeared at about the same time; followed 5,300 years ago by Egyptian hieroglyphics (3300-3200 B.C.).¹¹⁴

·         Circa 5,000-4,000 years ago. The Bronze Age began some 5,000 years ago (3000 B.C.) in Greece and China.¹¹⁵ Noah was born around the same time (2948 B.C.). The Flood took place in 2348 B.C.

·         Circa 4,000-3,000 years ago. Abraham was born about 4,000 years ago (1996 B.C.) The Iron Age began sometime around 1500-1000 B.C., with the use of iron for tools and weapons.¹¹⁶

·         Circa 3,000-2,000 years ago. David lived and died about 3,000 years ago (1015 B.C.), followed by his son Solomon (975 B.C.). Rome was founded in 753 B.C., made a republic in 509 B.C., and became an empire in 27 B.C.¹¹⁷

·         Circa 2,000-1,000 years ago. Christ was born about 2,000 years ago (5 B.C.). The eastern Roman Empire fell in 476 A.D.; the Dark Ages (early Middle Ages) began, ending in the 900s; the Medieval Period (late Middle Ages) lasted until the 1400s.

·         Circa 1,000 years ago-present. Christians launched Crusades from 1096 to 1396 to regain the Holy Land from the Muslims. The Renaissance, an era of learning and cultural revival, lasted from about 1450 to 1600. In the Age of Enlightenment, from the 1600s to the late 1700s, philosophers held reason as the best tool for finding truth. The modern age began in the 1700s.

·         Next 1,000 years. The Millennium, the prophesied 1,000-year era of peace (mankind’s great Sabbath of rest), during which Christ will reign on earth as King of Kings (Rev 20:1-7).

 

Diminishing Day-Ages Chronology

(7-“Day” Creation “Week” until 3000 A.D. = 15 Billion Years)

Day-Ages	Scriptures	Beginning, circa years ago	Science/History	Occurrence, circa years ago
Day 1	Light	15,000,000,000	Big Bang	13,700,000,000
			Milky Way	8,000,000,000
Day 2	Firmament	7,500,000,000	Sun, Earth, Moon	4,600,000,000
Day 3	Seas, dry land, vegetation	3,750,000,000	Oceans; bacteria/ cells w/out nuclei	3,500,000,000
Day 4	Heavenly lights	1,875,000,000	Atmosphere thinned
			Cells with nuclei	1,800,000,000
Day 5	Sea creatures,	937,500,000	Animal life forms	700,000,000
	flying creatures		Cambrian Explosion	544,000,000
			Chordates, fish	490,000,000
Day 6-a		468,750,000	85% extinction	438,000,000
	Land animals		Amphibians	417,000,000
			82% extinction	367,000,000
	Creeping		Insects	350,000,000
	things		Reptiles	323,000,000
	Beasts, cattle		Mammals	248,000,000
			96% extinction	245,000,000
6-b		234,375,000	76% extinction	208,000,000
			Archaeopteryx	150,000,000
6-c		117,187,500	76% extinction	65,000,000
			Primates (lemurs,	“
6-d		58,593,750	monkeys,
6-e		29,296,875	apes)
6-f		14,648,437	Ramapithecus	14,000,000
6-g		7,324,218	Sahelanthropus	7,000,000
			Orrorin tugenensis	6,000,000
			Ardipithecus	4,400,000
			Australopithecus	4,000,000
6-h		3,662,109	Kenyanthropus	3,500,000
			Homo habilis	2,800,000
			Homo rudolfensis	1,900,000
6-i		1,831,054	Homo erectus	1,500,000
6-j		915,527	H. heidelbergensis	600,000
6-k	Man	457,763	H. Neanderthalensis	300,000
6-l		228,882	Homo sapiens	200,000
6-m	“	114,441
6-n		57,221
6-o		28,611
Day 7	Day of rest	14,306
Day 8	Adam	6,000	Wheel, writing	5,500
Day 9	Noah, Flood	5,000	Bronze Age	5,000
Day 10	Abraham	4,000	Iron Age	3,500
Day 11	David, Solomon	3,000	Rome	2,750
Day 12	Christ	2,000	Dark/Middle Ages	1,600
Day 13	(Crusades)	1,000	Modern Age	250
Day 14	Millennium/rest	(near future)

 

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^109.Nature, May 16, 1996
^110.“1999: Archaeologists Find Evidence that Neandertals Practiced Cannibalism,” Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia Deluxe 2004
^111.Human Evolution, Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia Deluxe 2004
^112.Prehistoric people, World Book 2005 (Deluxe)
^113.Wheel, Encyclopaedia Britannica 2009 Student and Home Edition
^114.Writing, Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia Deluxe 2004
^115.Bronze Age, Encyclopaedia Britannica 2009 Student and Home Edition
^116.Iron Age, World Book 2005 (Deluxe)
^117.Ancient Rome, World Book 2005 (Deluxe)

(Excerpted from Chapter 4, Primordial Planet Puzzles, THE DEEP THINGS OF GOD: A Primer on the Secrets of Heaven and Earth by M.M. Tauson, Amazon.com)