THE ELEMENTAL FORCES OF THE UNIVERSE—There are several basicforces in nature which would destroy the universe—or not let it form—were it not for the delicate balance between them.
"There is another aspect of modem astronomical discoveries that is, in my view, asremarkable as the evidence for the abrupt birth ofthe Universe. According to the picture of theevolution of theUniverse developed by the stronomer and his fellow scientists, the smallestchange in any of the circumstances of the natural work, such as the relative strengths of the forcesof nature, or the properties of the elementary particles, would have led to a niverse in which there could be no life and no man."— *Robert Jastrow,"The Astronomer and God," in The intellectuals Speak Out About God (1884), p.15. [Jastrow classifies himself as an agnostic.]
Gravity. Gravity is the weakest force in the universe,yet itis in perfect balance. If gravity were any stronger, the smaller starscould not form, and ifit wereany smaller, the bigger stars could not form and no eavyelements couldexist. Only "reddwarf" stars would exist, and these would radiate too feeblyto support life on a planet.
All masses are found to attract one another witha force that varies inverselyas the square of the separation distance between the masses. That, in brief,is the law of gravity.But where didthat "2" [square] come from?Whyis the equation exactly "separation distance squared"? Why isit not 1.87, 1.95, 2.001, or3.378; why is it exactly
Every test reveals the force of gravity tobe keyed precisely to that2. Any value other than 2 would lead to an eventual decayof orbits, and the entire universe would destroy itself!
(Another example would bethe inverse-square law, which was mentioned in chapter 1 in connection with the red-shift and thevisibility of quasars. According to this law, lightdiminishes exactly according to the square of its distance from the observer; not 1.8, .97,or some other fraction, but exactly 2.)
The Miracle of Water
The earth is the only known planet with huge bodies of water. Seventy percent of its surface area consists of oceans, lakes, and seas surrounding huge bodies of land. The few other planets that have water contain only moisture floating as vapor on their surface or small amounts of ice or liquid water on the planet itself, not large bodies of liquid water as on earth.
Water is unique in that it can absorb enormous amounts of heat without a large alteration in its temperature. Its heat absorption level is about ten times as great as steel. During the day, the earth's bodies of water rapidly soak up enormous amounts of heat; thus, the earth stays fairly cool. At night, they release the vast amounts of heat that they absorbed during the day, which, combined with atmospheric effects, keeps most of the surface from freezing solid at night. If it were not for the tremendous amounts of water on the earth, far greater day and night temperature variations would exist. Many parts of the surface would be hot enough to boil water during the day, and the same parts would be cold enough to freeze water at night. Because water is an excellent temperature stabilizer, the large oceans on earth are vital for life to exist on earth.
In contrast to virtually all other materials (the rare exceptions include rubber and antimony), water contracts when cooled only until it reaches 4 degrees Celsius. Then it amazingly expands until it freezes. Thus, because of this anomaly, the ice that forms in seas, oceans, and lakes stays near the surface, where the sun heats it during the day and the warm water below melts it in the summer. This and the Coriolis effect, which produces ocean currents, ensure that most of the ocean stays in a liquid form, allowing the myriads of water creatures to live.
This is one more "stunning" demonstration that the "Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens" (Proverbs 3:19).
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