The Privileged Planet

Recently I watched The Privileged Planet. Contemporary scientists, were challenging the so called scientific theories of the past that the earth is just an insignificant planet rotating around an insignificant star. They concluded that all the present day knowledge of the earth and the universe reveals that the earth is uniquely placed in the universe by an intelligence for a purpose. Therefore, I want to share their conclusions.

There is an opinion, common among purely secular scientists, that our earthly existence is not only rather ordinary, but in fact, insignificant and purposeless. An accomplished astronomer, the late Carl Sagan, typifies this view in his book '"Pale Blue Dot". He took the position that a space photo, showing the reflection of sunlight on the earth, making the earth seeming to be sitting in a beam of light, can be misinterpreted as if there were some special significance to this small world. Dr. Sagan, momentarily stepped outside his scientific discipline, to say that a photo of the earth sitting in a beam of light is just an accident of geometry and optics. "Our posturing, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe", was challenged by Dr. Sagan( Sagan, Carl,1994. "Pale Blue Dot": New York: Random House). He claimed our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint('except in Biblical revelation, such as the star of Bethlehem', -this writer's observation ) that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. However some present day scientists, sharing their expertice on The Privileged Planet documentary say "unprecedented scientific knowledge acquired in the last century, enabled by equally unprecedented technological achievements, when properly interpreted, contributes to a deeper appreciation of the earth's place in the cosmos."

In The Privileged Planet modern day scientists explore a striking feature of the natural world. A feature as widely grounded in the evidence of nature as it is wide-ranging in its implications: the conditions that allow for intelligent life on earth also make it strangely well suited for viewing and analyzing the universe. The fact that our atmosphere is clear; that our moon is just the right size and distance from earth, and that its gravity stabilizes the earth’s rotation; that our position in our galaxy is just so; that our sun is its precise mass and composition: all of these factors (and many more), are not only necessary for earth’s habitability; they also have been surprisingly crucial for scientists to measure and make discoveries about the universe.

According to the producers of The Pivileged Planet, "Mankind is unusually well positioned to decipher the cosmos. To put it more technically, 'measurability' seems to correlate with habitability. But is this correlation between the existence of complex life and our ability to make scientific discoveries simply a coincidence or the result of blind chance? Or does it point to a deeper explanation? The Privileged Planet examines these questions in a remarkable search for evidence of design and purpose within the universe. Utilizing stunning computer animation and the visual archives of NASA, the Hubble Space Telescope Institute, the European Space Agency, and leading observatories throughout the world, the program present a spectacular view of our planet, galaxy, and the entire cosmos."

Scriptural Guide: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. All things were created by the Word and without the Word was not anything made...and the Word became flesh and lived amoung us."(John 1:1, 14).