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Originally Posted by Comicsartist
I know we've all touched upon the age old question "does God exist" and I recently found this site. I admit, my post about Google piqued my curiosity, so I searched for "who is God". This link is the second one mentioned, and I don't assume to know where their "truthiness" (all pardons to Jon Stewart) falls on the credintials scale. I can bet they are right wing, but I thought their "answers" (not sure what to call them at this point) were somewhat interesting. What do you all think?
http://www.everystudent.com/features/isthere.html |
Just taking a looking at the start of their evidence:
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The Earth...its size is perfect.
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Perfect is a bad descriptor. It's ideal for life on earth... because life on earth evolved to fit the environment of the earth! This should not be a surprise. And lets not forget about the how many near earth sized planets there might be in the universe where we estimate the number of stars to be around 10^22.
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The Earth's size and corresponding gravity holds a thin layer of mostly nitrogen and oxygen gases, only extending about 50 miles above the Earth's surface. If Earth were smaller, an atmosphere would be impossible, like the planet Mercury. If Earth were larger, its atmosphere would contain free hydrogen, like Jupiter.
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That is overly simplistic. There is a substantial range of size that would allow for a similar sort of atmosphere. The difference between the sizes of Mercury and Jupiter is enormous. And don't forget that Venus is almost the same size of earth.
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Earth is the only known planet equipped with an atmosphere of the right mixture of gases to sustain plant, animal and human life.
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Our ability to detect earth and near-earth sized planets is in its infancy at this point let alone determine their atmospheres etc. Only larger gas giants make enough of a gravitational effect to be detected. Failing to mention this gives a poor impression of exactly what the author is implying.
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The Earth is located the right distance from the sun. Consider the temperature swings we encounter, roughly -30 degrees to +120 degrees. If the Earth were any further away from the sun, we would all freeze. Any closer and we would burn up.
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Well this again is overly simplistic, there is a range that would be acceptable. The earth's overall climate has varied significantly in the past and life has continued. Many (most in fact) life forms go extinct while others become more common.
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Even a fractional variance in the Earth's position to the sun would make life on Earth impossible.
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This isn't true.
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The Earth remains this perfect distance from the sun while it rotates around the sun at a speed of nearly 67,000 mph.
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Well this is factually wrong as well, the earth's distance from the sun varies as it orbit becomes more elliptical. When the orbit has maximum eccentricity the earth can receive over 20% more radiation when it is close to the sun than when it is farther away during the year. There is no "perfect" distance.
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It is also rotating on its axis, allowing the entire surface of the Earth to be properly warmed and cooled every day.
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LOL, all planets rotate on their axis. And how is the entire surface of the Earth "properly" warmed and cooled every day when the polar regions alternately go several months without receiving any sunlight whatsoever? Life on earth evolved to fit the variations of climate including regional differentation.
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And our moon is the perfect size and distance from the Earth for its gravitational pull. The moon creates important ocean tides and movement so ocean waters do not stagnate, and yet our massive oceans are restrained from spilling over across the continents.
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Again the range of size of moons that would create tides is quite large. Furthmore if you look at various places around the earth like the Bay of Fundy where tides are dramatically larger, well there is still plenty of life to be found both in and out of the water. The claim "our massive oceans are restrained from spilling over across the continents" is pretty silly since it would require a moon orders of magnitute larger to do that. As to moving the ocean waters so they don't stagnate, well ocean currents are primarily caused by wind (surface) and changes in salinity, not tides. And life still exists in lakes and ponds where there is no noticable tidal action.
I didn't even bother to look a the rest. If this is a sample of their "logic" or science, it isn't a very good start.