There was no evidence that the planetary system could have come about… However, the more that scientists began to look at the amazing universe that they inhabited, they began to realize that there were certain factors that were simply very very fine-tuned for the existence of man, of molecules, of organic life. And the more they looked, the more they realized that we are in effect on really quite a knife edge and there are many many indications that this universe has been very specially designed and men is at the very center of it.
If we try to model the universe as we know it, as we try to build a mathematical model, it reflects what we know, we quickly discover there are thousands of parameters and ratios that if you adjust them even a little bit, life is impossible. We quickly discovered that if the earth was a little closer, a little further from the Sun, it is either too warm or too cold. If it turns at a little different speed, if the masses are a little different, it would hold too much or too little atmosphere. As you start to kind of model, you quickly discover that all the parameters involve an incredibly delicate balance. And so they call this the anthropic principle meaning it’s as if everything we know is skillfully designed or balanced for man.
The earth is at a very specific distance from the Sun and I have calculated that if we’re only at 5% closer, the water would boil off from the oceans. If it were just 1% further away then the oceans would freeze. And that gives you just some idea of what sort of a knife edge we are on. The surface gravity of the earth is exactly where it needs to be. More you have too much atmospheric pressure, less you don’t have an atmosphere. The thickness of the crust is critical, the rotation period of the earth, the gravitational interaction between the moon strangely enough has to be. All these contribute to what makes life possible and so they call that the anthropic principle which collectively is an overwhelming argument for a designer. Scientists don’t like to acknowledge that because the designer implies accountability.
That the earth was fine-tuned for the existence of life is no surprise to creation scientists. The Bible declared this fact thousands of years ago. In Isaiah we read:
For thus says the Lord who created the heavens, who is God, who formed the earth and made it, who has established it, who did not create it in vain, who formed it to be inhabited.
Physicist and Nobel laureate Arno Penzias stated in 1992: Astronomy leads us to a unique event, a universe which was created out of nothing, one with the very delicate balance needed to provide exactly the right conditions required to permit life and one which has an underlying – one might say – supernatural plan.
Astronomer George Greenstein stated in his book The Symbiotic Universe: As we survey all the evidence, the thought insistently arises that some supernatural agency must be involved. Is it possible that suddenly without intending to, we have stumbled upon scientific proof for the existence of a Supreme Being? Was it God who stepped in and so providentially crafted the cosmos for our benefit? The more we study the cosmos, the more the Psalmist’s words ring true. “The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech and night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard.