Unravelling the Creation
Rajesh Bhola
God has unlimited forms and He is the
secret mover of the cosmos, wherein
universes manifest, live and die 'natural'
cosmic births and deaths. Evolution
comes from a root word that means 'to
unwrap', and it looks at the universe
from a physical perspective; the
word God comes from a root
word that means 'to invoke', and
it looks at the universe from a
spiritual perspective. Guru
Granth Sahib Ji speaks of the
limitless and endless planets
and galaxies – worlds upon
worlds of His creation. As He
commands, so they exist.
Guru Nanak says: 'He created
the Earth and the two lamps:
the Sun and the Moon…He has
unfolded Himself in so many
ways…Forever and ever, He is
the One, the One Universal
Creator.
Many millions are created in
various forms. From God they
emanate, and into God they merge once again. His
limits are not known to anyone. O Nanak, God exists
by Himself…He established the three worlds (life in
water, on land and in the air)'. Sikhism states that this
is not the first time God created this Universe - He has
done so many times.
Life not only exists on Earth alone but on many
other planets. Scientists are attempting to unravel the
creation of God, but the whole of creation is so vast
that it seems beyond what humans can explore. In
fact, scientists who try to comprehend the mysteries of
His creation realise that the more they 'learn', the
more they are amazed. However, when we meditate on
God, He Himself unfolds the mysteries and reveals all
of His creation.
The long-term stability of the solar system remains
a perplexing, 'unsolved' issue. Let's see what makes
Earth 'tick'. The Earth is tilted on its axis at an angle of
23.5". This is important, because it accounts for the seasons. Two factors impact the progression of
seasons. The most important is the location of land
masses on Earth. Nearly all of the continental land
mass is located in the Northern Hemisphere. Since
land has a higher capacity to absorb the Sun's energy,
the Earth is much warmer when the Northern
Hemisphere is pointing
towards the Sun.
This happens to be the
point at which the Earth is
farthest from the Sun. If the
opposite was true, the
seasons on Earth would be
much more severe (hotter
summers and colder
winters). Why is the Moon
important to life on Earth?
The collision of the small
planet with Earth resulted in
the ejection of the majority
of Earth's primordial
atmosphere. If this collision
had not occurred, we would
have had an atmosphere
similar to that of Venus.
Such a thick atmosphere on Venus resulted in a
runaway greenhouse effect, leaving a dry planet with a
surface temperature of 800"F. Earth has 20% more
mass than Venus and is further away from the Sun -
factors that should have led to the terrestrial
atmosphere here being much thicker than that of
Venus.
For some strange reason we have a very thin
atmosphere - just the right density to maintain the
presence of liquid, solid and gaseous water, which is
necessary to life. That is His great design. There are
three types of galaxies in the universe: spiral, elliptical
and irregular. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is a spiral
galaxy, and our Sun resides far away from the galaxy's
centre.
At the centre of probably all galaxies is a black hole,
which is so dense that light cannot escape from it. Any
matter that comes near a black hole is attracted to it
by gravity, and as the matter speeds up, a large amount of radiation is emitted.
Stars near the centre of a galaxy,
and far enough from the black
hole, can survive its gravitational
pull, but they are subject to much
more intense radiation than stars
that are far away from the centre
of a galaxy.
Since radiation is not conducive
to life, it is good that our Sun is not
near the centre of our galaxy.
Further, the Sun's almost circular
galactic orbit keeps it far away
from the centre. In the case of
elliptical and irregular galaxies,
their stars have orbits that cause
them to visit the centre of their
galaxies, and thus be exposed to
the dangerous radiation that exits
there.
Next, consider our Moon, which,
like the Sun, is critical to
supporting life on Earth. The
Moon's gravitational pull on Earth
stabilises the tilt in the Earth's axis
of rotation. If this axis were varied,
the result would be that over time
the North Pole would migrate
down toward the Equator, and
there would be tremendous
changes in climate around the
Earth. Areas that were fertile
would become either too cold or
too hot for crops to grow. As a
result, life would be confined to
small compact niches, and a large
diversity of life probably would not
exist.
In fact, without the Moon,
intelligent life might not exist at
all. Mars has two moons, but they
are too small to stabilise its
rotation, and thus Mars' axis of
rotation varies widely. Our Moon is
relatively large compared to our
planet's size. The best hypothesis
for its formation is that the two
planets collided just after Earth's
formation.
However, the angle of the
collision was critical. If the planets
had collided head on, they would
have annihilated one another; if
the collision angle were too small, Earth's gravity would not have
been able to 'capture' the Moon.
How many times in the universe
have two planets collided in the
precise way that the Moon and
Earth collided?
Finally, let's consider Earth. If
Earth's mass was much smaller, its
gravity would not be strong enough to retain its atmosphere; if
Earth's mass was too large, then
the pull of its gravity would be
huge, and it would not be possible
to have high mountains. There is
so much water on Earth that,
without mountains, the entire
surface of Earth would be under
water. Plate tectonics and the
related continental drift are also
important for sustaining life on
Earth. Continental drift results in
the formation of mountains and
high grounds, for a diversity of life
to exist.
God, the director, not
only stages the play, but
Himself plays the many
characters - life forms -
in different costumes
(bodies). When the
Creator projects Himself,
He creates many planets,
living beings and life
forms. And when He
draws His creation within
Himself, all living beings
merge in Him.
A planet also has to have a
minimum size, to keep the heat in
its interior from being lost too
quickly. Within the interior of
Earth there are radioactive
reactions taking place, which
generate heat. The result is that
the iron in Earth's core remains
molten, and this molten iron
generates a magnetic field around
Earth. This magnetic field is crucial to life, because it protects Earth
from damaging cosmic rays,
whose cosmic radiation would also
strip away Earth's atmosphere.
In addition to Earth's size and
structure, we must also consider
its orbit, which is almost circular.
If the orbit was more elliptical,
then Earth would either be too hot
when it approached the Sun or too
cold when it moved far away.
If the
radius of Earth's orbit was changed
by even 5%, there would be no
animal life - the 'zone' for animal
life in the Solar system is very
narrow. The uniqueness in Earth's
design has prevented it from
becoming a planet frozen solid in
ice (like Neptune) or a sweltering
scorched inferno (like Venus).
We can thus conclude that only
a very, very tiny fraction of stars
would have just the right
conditions for intelligent life (as
we know it to exist) on a planet
orbiting them. More importantly,
these facts seem to suggest the
role of a super intellectual Creator,
who could 'design' things with
such meticulous finesse.
As the Bible says 'The heavens
declare the glory of God'.
The
universe, our galaxy, our solar
system and the Earth-Moon
double planet link, demonstrate
remarkable evidence of intelligent
design. It is improbable that this
came about randomly - design by
an intelligent Creator is definitely
a more 'realistic' explanation.
Whichever and whatever…we must
admit that we are the 'products' of
a miracle – either by chance or
(more likely) by design.
God, the director, not only
stages the play, but Himself plays
the many characters - life forms -
in different costumes (bodies).
When the Creator projects
Himself, He creates many planets,
living beings and life forms.
And when He draws His creation
within Himself, all living beings
merge in Him.