A friend recently sent me a link to a newspaper article where a scientist says that, because Earth does not have a “privileged place” in the universe, we should not believe in God. It’s a false statement based on bad science. I wrote my book and I’m writing this blog to set the record straight.
First, modern cosmology has revealed that there is no center, no privileged place, anywhere in the universe. The universe is expanding everywhere, and, as counter-intuitive as it may seem, there is no center to this expansion. So it makes no sense to say that Earth is or is not at the center.
Second, there are MANY special features of Earth. Earth is in the right galaxy, with the right amount of “metals” in the cosmological sense (elements forged in stars or created by a supernova); 98% of galaxies have less. Earth is in the “galactic habitable zone,” the right distance from the galactic center. Earth travels a safe path through the galaxy, nearly circular, on the inner edge of the Orion arm, which is critical because a star passing too close would disturb billions of objects in our Solar System bigger than whatever wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. We have a wonderful solar system where planets have stable orbits and the larger planets help to protect Earth from collisions; computer simulations show that without Jupiter – the “vacuum cleaner” of the Solar System — collisions of large objects with the Earth would be thousands of times more frequent. We have an amazing moon that keeps the tilt of the Earth’s axis stable, and creates tides. I have written a whole chapter on these and many more special qualities of Earth; two scientists who are experts in this area estimate that the odds of finding another planet as suitable as Earth for sustaining life over billions of years are less than one in 100 in our entire galaxy of hundreds of billions of stars.
Third, our special Earth is, by my account, only one of seven areas of modern science that support belief in God and, frankly, the recent discoveries in other areas are even more amazing.
Don’t let false science turn you away from God. Thanks for reading.