God’s Nature * Nature’s God
The Complex Simplicity of Air
Air...Simple right? Wrong! Oxygen is required for animal/human
life...check. Carbon dioxide for plant life...check. Water vapor for
both...check. Simple, but why does air (atmosphere) contain other
stuff or even this stuff? Why, if it exists solely as a result of natural
causes, is this inorganic stuff related to organic life? They are two
separate systems that should be fully unrelated in a materialistic
paradigm. Logically, however, their relationship, even their very
existence, screams out for design. Earth is life sustaining...You can
hardly prevent it, even with weed killers! But, we are immersed in a very hostile universe with very tight
specifications for existence. Sounds like design to me. How ‘bout you?
Atmosphere...Curtain of Wonder
So what about this other stuff...like nitrogen and other gases? Nitrogen is
overwhelmingly the most common component (78%). Why not oxygen? Isn’t that
what we need most? Oxygen is a poison! What say you? Yes, in higher
concentrations it is a killer, plus it causes things to oxidize...iron to rust, arteries to clog,
cells to die. It needs to be diluted, which is perfectly done by nitrogen. But there’s
more. Remember the hostile universe...Bad hood, man! Gamma rays, X- rays, UVrays – the ultimate switchblades. They come from the sun. But, man, we need the sun
(photosynthesis). But it too is a killer. What shall we do? Enter God’s wonderful
design again. Molecular nitrogen has a very strong triple bond that is broken by gamma
rays thus “absorbing” or de-energizing this harmful radiation. Also coming into our
atmosphere are X-rays, but their energy is not strong enough to break nitrogen’s triple
bond. These would harmfully penetrate us if not for oxygen’s double bond which Xrays are perfectly able to break thus losing their energy. These energy components are
perfectly matched. Is this yet another fortuitous arrangement? Still more...UV
radiation lurks out there as a cellular killer yet we need it to make vitamin D. A
dilemma solved by yet another chemical bond, italicized to draw your attention to
God’s emphasis on relationship, be it in nature or human discourse. Here we have a
double and a single covalent bond found in ozone, its energy matched to extract the
most harmful portion of UV. High above all this is earth’s magnetic field, another layer
of protection from cosmic bad guys...Yet another story!
Science can only conjecture, without empiric proof, how matter and energy came into
existence, let alone the array of elements, molecular structure, organic pathways,
cellular and organismal arrangement with many separate systems connected (bonded) by communication and
feedback mechanisms. To top it off, a living system with amazing information storage capable of reproducing
itself. Top that off by placing it in a dangerous neighborhood protected by the very mechanisms that life itself
is formed of. This is an elegance far beyond that which is capable by chance, coincidence or fortuity...It is not a
fluke! Creation can be denied only by willful disregard of logical consequence and empiric parameters of
design, to say nothing of the personal peril of disavowing the power and sovereignty of the Creator himself.
“For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?” Isaiah 40:13