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     We live on the marvelous planet earth, unique and unlike all other planets.  Why is it unique?  How is it different?  Because the surface and atmospheric conditions work together to support life – aquatic, plant, animal, and human life.  Briefly we will consider a few of the earth’s surface conditions and their relationship to life.  The surface temperature depends primarily upon the earth’s distance from the sun and the tilt of the rotational axis of the earth.

     The earth’s ideal distance from the sun maintains the right surface temperature suitable for life.  If we were even 2% closer to the sun, the increased heat would melt the ice, increase sea levels, giving us less land and an ultra-tropical climate.  If the earth was farther from the sun, it would be covered with ice, thus unable to sustain life.

     The earth’s tilt causes seasons and their changes in weather, thus mankind can cultivate a maximum amount of land.  If the earth had no tilt, only about 50% of the current farm land could produce crops.  If the tilt was doubled, the summers would be unbearably hot and winters extremely cold, so that life on most of the earth would be almost impossible.  In harmony with the earth’s tilt is the earth’s 24-hour a day rotation.
     The earth’s 24 hour rotation helps to uniformly heat its surface to support life.  If the earth’s rotation was slower, the day and night temperatures would be extreme.  Imagine 130 degrees every day and below zero temps every night!  No life form could survive such radical changes each day.

     If the earth’s orbit varied from its current path or the tilt of the earth changed, it would radically alter the ratio of surface water to exposed land, thus changing the amount of the earth’s reflective surface, so the earth would be colder or hotter, thus unable to maintain the balance needed to support life.

     Even the density and composition of the earth’s crust is unique.  About 30% of the earth’s crust averages about 3000 feet above sea level, the other 70% averages almost 13,000 feet below sea level.  The first reason the continents are above water is that the rock making up the sub-oceanic crust is twice as dense as the continental crust.  Second, the continents’ crust is twice as thick as the oceans’.  Thus the ocean floor does not tend to float, nor the continents sink.

     Is the earth’s ideal temperatures, tilt, rotation and surface density which sustain life merely accidental?  The Bible states that the God of heaven created it fully productive and reproductive in six, 24-hour days (Genesis 1).  No, there was no human witness of its origin.  Nor is the origin of the universe, with its unique earth, provable by the scientific method (repeatedly reproducible as in a laboratory), thus proof of its origin is in the realm of reason.  Which is reasonable?  An earth that suddenly formed by a random explosion of self-existent gases or one created by an intelligent and orderly designer?  (If the entire universe came from one gaseous explosion, why don’t the planets have the same composition and characteristics?)  Chance or intelligent design?  Three thousand years ago, the Psalmist wrote “The heavens and the earth declare the glory of God....” (Psalms 19:1).

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