About 40 years ago, A. Cressy Morrison, former Pres. of the NY Academy of Science published a little book titled: "Man Does Not Stand Alone." He points out that there are many fine-tuned conditions which make the earth habitable. Among these are the tilt of 23 Deg.; the distance from the sun; the rotation; the moon; and many others. I wrote about this book in an earlier post and will not elaborate further.
Now, however, there is a dvd out called "Privileged Planet". It is a documentary presented by very well qualified astonomers; physicists; etc. They not only carefully explain the precise balances that make life possible in our solar system, but they point out that our planet is privileged in other ways that make it unique.
We watched the dvd with Jan and Steve last night and were overawed and impressed with the amazing disclosures and facts it contains. For example, our solar system is located about 2/3 of the way out from the galaxy center between two of the arms. Density there is relatively light so that we can see out into the vast areas of space and see billions of other galaxies. Before about 1929 it was thought that our galaxy was the entire universe. Then Edwin Hubble discovered that "nebula" formerly thought to be dust clouds were in fact other galaxies many light years away. The nearest large one is Andromeda about 2 million light years from us.
Had our earth been located any other place in our galaxy other than the light density area it is probable that we would not be able to see outside our own galaxy due to the clouds of billions of stars much closer together which would obscure our vision. The commentators conclude that our earth is indeed priviliged. It is carefully placed in the only habitable, life supporting area in the solar system and is also placed so that we may (with scientific advances) see out into the vast areas of space containing uncountable galaxies each containing billions of stars. With stars come planets and it is foolish to conclude that there are no other privileged planets out there. In fact we know from recent revelation that God has created "worlds without number". This ties in beautifully with why we are here and what our destiny can be according to the gospel plan.
Many thanks to Jan and Steve for bringing this dvd so that we could enjoy it. I highly recommend it to all
3 comments:
My dad always DOES find the best videos. We have been enjoying the Planet Earth DVDs so much. It's wonderful to learn more about our planet and where it fits in to God's plan. Jefferson is really into space right now too. I'll have to tell him some of this.
Hi Dad
Its so great to see you are up to blogging again. I have missed reading your words of great wisdom and feel refreshed to do so again!
Bel
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