Origin of the Earth
Was the Earth Designed?
Is the Earth the way it is by coincidence or by design? The Anthropic Principle states that the universe is especially suitable for the well-being of mankind. Examples of the suitability of Earth include:- Tides are just right. If the Moon were closer, tidal effects on the oceans, atmosphere and rotational period would be too great. If further, tidal mixing of waters and health of marine life would be diminished.
- Length of day is just right. If the Earth rotated faster, wind velocities would be too great - compare Jupiter's cloud bands that wrap right around that planet. If slower, diurnal temperature changes would be too great.
- Distance from the Sun is just right. Temperature ranges are correct for a stable water cycle.
- Magnetic field is just right. Ekectromagnetic storms are not too severe, yet we have adequate protection from solar radiation.
- Axial tilt is just right to permit acceptable surface temperatures.
- Surface gravity is sufficient to retain water vapour in the atmosphere, but not so strong that ammonia and methane are also retained.
- Oxygen to nitrogen ratio is just right for a breathable atmosphere. If too much oxygen, spontaneous combustion would be a problem.
- Ozone level is just right. Less ozone is a worry for UV radiation not being blocked, and for too high surface temperatures. Hence the concerns about the 'holes' (actually thinnings) in the ozone layer. If too much ozone, temperatures would be too low.
- Carbon dioxide and water vapour levels are just right to have just the correct amount of greenhouse effect.
Examples of the suitability of the Universe include:
- The mass of a proton is just right. If only 0.2% heavier, protons would be unstable and decay, so hydrogen atoms - any atoms - could not exist.
- The force of gravity is extremely neat, defined as inversly proportional to the exact square of the distance separating the two bodies. Why the precise square - measured to 2.00000? Turns out that anything else would lead to catastrophic decay of orbits.
- Strong and weak nuclear force coupling constants, and the electromagnetic coupling constant, are just right.
The earth and the universe are the ultimate in user-friendliness. There is plenty of observed design. This is a powerful signature of God, the Designer. Any design requires a designer.
The alternative to invoking a Designer, is to invoke design by accident. This is done by supposing there are an infinite number of universes, each with different geometries and key numbers, and our universe is the one where everything just happened to be exactly right. But this is not really an answer, is not supported by observed evidence, and is silent about why things ARE.
Our Earth is beyond coincidence:
- If it was Designed, then there is a Designer.
- If there is a Designer, there is a Purpose - a reason why things ARE.
- If there is a Purpose, then there is a Destiny.
Christians believe the Purpose has been communicated to us by a Message, namely the Bible.
The Ancient Atmosphere
The Apollo 16 mission set up cameras on the moon pointed at Earth and observed hydrogen leaving the earth. This is from water vapour in the air, which with ultraviolet (UV) radiation, is disassociated into hydrogen and oxygen. The hydrogen is so light that it escapes the earth. Oxygen is left behind and builds up in the atmosphere. Mariner 10 found oxygen in the upper atmosphere of Venus. It got there not by photosynthesis (no life on Venus!), but by the same mechanism as is active on Earth.
So in the formation of earth, free hydrogen is quickly lost. Without free hydrogen, methane cannot persist for long. In the presence of UV radiation, CO and NH3 cannot last long. The end result is an oxygen atmosphere (an oxidising atmosphere). Oxygen is in fact the third most abundant element in the Universe, after hydrogen and helium.
The oxidising early atmosphere is a problem. Oxygen would quickly destroy any new biochemicals as soon as they form. Thus the first life couldn't form on Earth. This is way, for many years, evolutionists claimed that the Earth's early atmosphere was 'reducing' (had no oxygen), as they saw that life could not get started otherwise. Various geological observations were interpreted to support the claim.
However, the idea of the early reducing atmosphere is fraught with problems, and most of the observations can be interpreted to support an oxidising atmosphere. The Apollo 16 evidence is very clear.
This is a major reason why some scientists are now supposing that there was no primordial soup on Earth, and no reducing atmosphere. So the best place for life - Earth - is not available as the place for life to start spontaneously.
Instead, those scientists have to look at second-best places elsewhere. Suggestions are that biochemicals (amino acids) formed out in space and were brought to earth in comets or meteorites. These ideas too have problems, and are based more on hope than anything else.
The Age of the Earth
Nearly all the evidence, if logically assessed, points towards a young earth, some thousands of years old. It takes a great deal of faith to believe that the evidence is speaking of an earth that is 4.5 billion years old. Evidence is known from science, as well as history, languages, archaeology, etc.
Radiometric Dating
Radiometric dating is used to estimate the age of rocks. However, in isotope dating mathematics, there are more unknowns in the equations than there are equations, so something has to be assumed. Even using the isochron dating technique still does not remove the need for assumptions. The assumptions are:
- A constant rate of decay or change - generally well known.
- A closed system - unlikely over long time periods.
- An initial concentration of the key elements - quite unknown.
If sometimes the assumptions are wrong, the dates will be invalid.
Therefore, geologists accept or reject a date depending on whether it agrees with what they anticipated. In effect they presume the correct answer before the rock is tested. Many 'discordant' dates are discarded, blaming contamination, technical errors, or nominated geological events. So the 'Geological Column' dates are effectively based on mutual acceptance and expectation among peers, rather than on truly known ages.
The Geological Time Scale dates were standardised in 1964, based on some 380 radiometric ages selected for their presumed agreement with fossil and geologic sequences in rocks. Most (85%) of the date samples were by the K-Ar (potassium-argon) method. The accuracy of the Time Scale is questionable if the K-Ar age reflects the character or history of the rock, rather than real age.
It turns out that it is questionable. Known historical volcanic eruptions produce 'ancient' lava. Mt St Helens lava was produced in 1983, and dated radiometrically at up to 1.8 million years old. The 1901 Hualalei eruption was dated by the K-Ar method at 1.1 billion years old. Australian Tektites dated at 700,000 years old are found undisturbed in sediments 6500 years old. The history of the tektites, not their age, seems to be revealed by the isotopic ratios.
There is a reasonable alternative view, which suggests that isotope ratios are determined by the chemical and physical factors in a given magma chamber. Magmas are not absolutely homogeneously mixed, and the rock produced reflects this. Thus radiometric dates are useful for studying not actual age, but the sequential order of events, and for understanding the geochemical history of rocks. And isochron data does not validate the assumed dates, instead it shows the mixing lines.
Other Age Dating
There are other observations suggesting young age of materials on the earth. For instance, biological molecules found encased in rock - such molecules disintegrate after death. Bread goes stale quickly! DNA in 2500-year-old Egyptian mummies is 95% gone. DNA is all gone within at most 300,000 years, and amino acids within a few million years. Yet, impossibly, these are found in rocks claimed to be millions of years old. DNA is reported in 17 million year old leaves in a Miocene lake deposit in Idaho. Amino acid residues are reported in 400 million year old graptolites in a Silurian formation.
Other arguments for a younger earth have been made from observed rates of erosion of continents, sedimentation in oceans, helium in the atmosphere, lack of archaeological evidence of cities or roads more than a few thousand years old, lack of truly ancient historical records and writings, the recent advent of agriculture, the recent discontinuity in population growth after being flat for over a million years. Explanations are made for all these as special cases. But why are so many special cases needed? This suggests that the paradigm of conventional geological time is receiving undeserved support.
On the other hand, there are observations which can be interpreted to suggest an old earth, such as the Oklo natural uranium reactor in Africa, claimed to have gone critical around 1.8 billion years ago.
Is the Earth Old Enough?
The conventional age of the Earth, about 4,500,000,000 years, is far far too young for evolution! We saw elsewhere (see Odds of Evolution) that random formation of just ONE desired protein from a soup of amino acids, under the most impossibly generous conditions, would take 31,700,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 years! This is the weight of evidence that must be ignored in order to choose to believe in evolution.