-
April 15, 2019
We might take it for granted, but our planet’s magnetic field is no sure thing. A just-published research paper by three Australian astronomers shows that a strong, long-lasting magnetic field is essential for the survival of advanced life and that such magnetic fields must be extremely rare among rocky extrasolar planets.1
-
Requirements for Life
-
Earth Design
-
Fine-Tuning
-
Exoplanets
-
Sun
-
Solar System Design
-
April 8, 2019
Zones where advanced life can exist in the universe just became stricter. Astronomical researchers have discovered that livable neighborhoods must include not only favorable planet-to-star conditions but also galactic and supergalactic features.
-
Solar System Design
-
Galaxy Design
-
Universe Design
-
Milky Way Galaxy
-
Fine-Tuning
-
April 1, 2019
For several decades, astronomers have known that Earth’s atmosphere possesses a nitrogen abundance that is exquisitely fine-tuned for advanced life. Now, a team of four astronomers has discovered the origin of Earth’s atmospheric nitrogen.
-
Solar System Design
-
Earth Design
-
Comets
-
Atmosphere
-
Moon & Its Formation
-
March 25, 2019
In August 2017, Reasons to Believe organized a conference on the fine-tuned design of the Sun and Moon that makes advanced human civilization possible. We held the conference on a site and at the time of a total solar eclipse. We not only witnessed a spectacular solar eclipse but also learned in several different ways how the Sun and Moon are exquisitely designed to enable the existence of human beings on Earth.
-
Ocean life
-
Solar System Design
-
Oceans
-
Sun
-
Moon & Its Formation
-
Fine-Tuning
-
Earth Design
-
Animals
-
-
March 18, 2019
Seventy-one percent may seem like average, but when it comes to Earth’s surface water percentage, that number appears to be ideal for advanced civilization. A scientific agency like NASA recognizes that life cannot exist without liquid water—thus, their long-held astrobiology mantra is to “follow the water.”1 That pursuit leads astrobiology researchers to look for evidence of life or life’s remains on astronomical bodies where there is at least a possibility of surface liquid water.
-
Life History
-
Human Origins
-
Oceans
-
Ocean life
-
Earth's History
-
Earth Design
-
Animals
-
Fine-Tuning
-
Exoplanets
-
March 11, 2019
Considerable political and scientific discussion today concerns the possible effects of global warming. Not much attention, however, has been given to potential future water loss—in other words, death by drying out. A major reason why Earth’s water loss has not been publicized is due to large uncertainties in water loss models. A recent paper in the Astrophysical Journal has now brought a measure of certainty to Earth’s inevitable future water loss.1 Is there reason to worry?
-
Solar System Design
-
Sun
-
Fine-Tuning
-
Earth Design
-
Atmosphere
-
March 4, 2019
Scientists’ quest to find a habitable planet like Earth continues to drive extraterrestrial research. However, new studies show that planets capable of sustaining complex life must be extremely rare. Astronomers have discovered eleven different planetary habitability zones—locations relative to the distance from the host star where life could conceivably exist. See table 1 for a list of these habitability zones.
-
Fine-Tuning
-
Requirements for Life
-
Solar System Design
-
Life on Other Planets
-
Stars
-
Exoplanets
-
Earth Design
-
Atmosphere
-
February 25, 2019
One of the most popular blogs I wrote in 2010 discussed how the recovery of the sperm whale population from near extinction to 12,000 individuals in the Southern Ocean had greatly increased that ocean’s biomass and had helped to mitigate global warming.1 Now, studies on blue whales, fin whales, and humpback whales establish that they, too, are making an enormous contribution to increasing the marine biomass and in helping to mitigate global warming.
-
Ocean life
-
Life Design
-
Global Warming
-
Animals
-
-
February 18, 2019
Theater aficionados know that noise and commotion behind the curtain during intermission of a theatrical performance intensifies expectation. Then, when the curtain rises after intermission, the audience sees that the scene has been radically altered and their “wow” factor is heightened. Earth’s scene (or ‘cene) has also changed dramatically in history to bring about surprising changes for humanity’s benefit.
-
Fine-Tuning
-
Earth Design
-
Oceans
-
Atmosphere
-
Geophysics
-
Asteroids
-
February 11, 2019
Years ago, in a paper published in the Astrophysical Journal, theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss referred to dark energy as presenting “the most extreme fine-tuning problem known in physics.” Dark energy is energy embedded in the universe’s space surface that makes up about 70 percent of all the stuff of the universe (see figure 1). Krauss determined that the fine-tuning level is more extreme than one part in 10120! He has been joined by several other theoretical physicists who conclude that the required fine-tuning of dark energy is “the most difficult problem in physics.” The obvious question is does this most difficult problem point to a causal agent with the capacity to fine-tune to a degree far, far beyond anything we humans are capable of manifesting?
-
Earth Design
-
Stars
-
Universe Design
-
Dark Energy & Dark Matter
-
Anthropic Principle
-
Animals
-
February 4, 2019
Large terrestrial mammals bring delight to everyone. Such pleasure explains why zoos, wild animal parks, and safaris are so popular. It also explains why so many of us enjoy the close encounters we experience with wild terrestrial mammals when we visit national parks and wilderness areas. To add to our enjoyment, a paper1 published in a little-known science journal, Acta Oecologica, provides research showing that we humans are living at an especially optimal time to experience and benefit from large terrestrial mammals.
-
Earth's History
-
Ecosystems
-
Fine-Tuning
-
Requirements for Life
-
Earth Design
-
January 28, 2019
Ongoing development in high-precision cosmology may soon provide yet even more compelling evidence for the supernatural origin of the universe. Astronomers’ ability to accurately measure distances to “standard candle” stars has been the limiting factor in their quest to build a precision model for the origin and history of the universe. However, a recent measurement has lowered this limit by a factor of nearly five times.
-
Cosmic Expansion
-
Universe Design
-
Origin of the Universe
-
Big Bang Theory
-
-
January 21, 2019
Last May I debated with Peter Atkins, Oxford University chemist and well-known atheist, on the Unbelievable? radio show and video podcast. Toward the end of the debate, moderator Justin Brierley asked each of us to name a possible scientific discovery that, if proven true beyond any reasonable doubt, would cause us to abandon the philosophical worldview we were advocating. You can watch the debate here.
-
Milky Way Galaxy
-
Universe Design
-
God
-
Origin of the Universe
-
Big Bang Theory
-
January 14, 2019
During our mountaineering trips I am always the cautious one, carefully charting the safest routes to our destinations. Not so much my wife. Whenever we get to the edge of a chasm, she loves to dangle her legs over the cliff’s edge and gaze for several minutes at the vista.
-
Galaxy Design
-
Milky Way Galaxy
-
Design
-
Anthropic Principle
-
January 7, 2019
When we think about volcanoes, the images that typically come to mind are violent eruptions that devastate the surrounding landscapes and bring death or serious injury to anyone so unfortunate as to be in the vicinity. Figure 1, for example, shows the lava flows from the 1985 eruption of the Nevado del Ruiz volcano, which killed more than 23,000 people and destroyed the town of Armero, Colombia.
-
Ocean life
-
Ecosystems
-
Earth Design
-
December 31, 2018
For those of us who live in the northern hemisphere, December is a good time to remind everyone about the Sun. It is the month when the Sun spends the fewest hours per day above the horizon. Where I was raised in coastal British Columbia, December was also a month characterized by incessant rain. I remember several Decembers when the Sun never made its appearance in the sky.
-
Mars
-
Solar System Design
-
Sun
-
Earth Design
-
Early Earth
-
-
December 24, 2018
At this time of year, people everywhere celebrate the wonder of God sending his son to Earth to live, die, and be raised in order to redeem humans. Perhaps few think of the wonderful planet God created as a stage for his heavenly purposes. Two seemingly obscure events, the Hiawatha impactor and the Younger Dryas cooling event about 12,000 years ago, have made it possible for humans to live in an abnormally stable climate that launched the development of high-tech civilization.
-
End Times
-
Meteors
-
Fine-Tuning
-
Earth's History
-
Geophysics
-
Earth Design
-
Asteroids
-
December 17, 2018
Floods and fires raged and boulders rained from the sky. Such a sci-fi-like scenario in Earth’s relatively recent past gave us, in part, the extreme climate stability that has allowed humans to flourish.
-
Earth Design
-
Natural Disasters
-
Asteroids
-
Oceans
-
Geophysics
-
America
-
December 10, 2018
In last week’s blog1 I described how a careful reconstruction of temperature proxies at sites all over the world revealed that the climate stability humans have enjoyed over the past 9,500 years was about twice as stable as scientists had previously concluded. That is, we are twice as blessed as we had previously thought. Thanks to the extreme climate stability of the past 9,500 years, we have been successful in launching and sustaining global high-technology civilization and in building our population up to seven billion individuals.
-
Oceans
-
Global Warming
-
Earth's History
-
Earth Science
-
Natural Disasters
-
Geophysics
-
Asteroids
-
December 3, 2018
One of the most outstanding and blessed features of Earth is that it has an ice age cycle where, for the past 9,000 years of that cycle, the planet has experienced extreme climate stability. New analysis of historical temperature measurements garnered from 73 different locations on Earth now reveals that the climate of the past 9,000 years has been far more stable than previously thought. That is, we humans are much more blessed than we previously recognized.
-
Fine-Tuning
-
Global Warming
-
Earth's History
-