Nasa announced the discovery of 715 MORE extra-solar planets than we already knew about. This new set of planets is said to include 4 in habitable zones and of a size within the same ballpark as that of the Earth. The current methods still favor planets with short orbits and greater mass than the Earth, but this is now close to 2000 extra-solar planets that are now known.
Kind of hard to say 'planets don't form naturally' when they are ubiquitous - eh Jorge?
Well probably not. Jorge still doubts even stars can form naturally. There are trillions of those.
More to the point, it does seem that our solar system, which so far still seems a bit rare in form, is not a unique occurrence in the universe or our galaxy. Planets are everywhere. And they come in a wide variety of forms, a variety that is in fact a superset of what we find here around Sol. This is what could be expected from observations of star formation given the number of dust disks seen and which should eventually form planetary systems around the new stars themselves.
So once again, what appears to be a logical consequence of the laws of nature as they are understood through science happens to also be reflected in simple reality.
So what does this say to the Christian? Though for some it may challenge their presumptions, mostly I think it says that God has made a universe that is amazing and varied. And that we must remain humble in our assumptions about how He did it, or what His purposes are beyond what scripture reveals - and even in terms of how we interpret said scripture. Especially thoughts that mimic those of Galileo's time, thoughts that demand some kind of centralized physical importance on our part. We simply can't predict what God has done in creation based on His revealed focus on us our redemption. God is more than capable of giving us His full attention without diluting in the slightest whatever other purposes He may have in this creation.
But I think to most anyone who has grown up on Star Trek and sci-fi in general and is old enough to remember when we looked out and wondered if there were planets outside the solar system, it is simply amazing and exciting to be living in a time when this particular door of understanding and knowledge has been opened.
JIm
Kind of hard to say 'planets don't form naturally' when they are ubiquitous - eh Jorge?
Well probably not. Jorge still doubts even stars can form naturally. There are trillions of those.
More to the point, it does seem that our solar system, which so far still seems a bit rare in form, is not a unique occurrence in the universe or our galaxy. Planets are everywhere. And they come in a wide variety of forms, a variety that is in fact a superset of what we find here around Sol. This is what could be expected from observations of star formation given the number of dust disks seen and which should eventually form planetary systems around the new stars themselves.
So once again, what appears to be a logical consequence of the laws of nature as they are understood through science happens to also be reflected in simple reality.
So what does this say to the Christian? Though for some it may challenge their presumptions, mostly I think it says that God has made a universe that is amazing and varied. And that we must remain humble in our assumptions about how He did it, or what His purposes are beyond what scripture reveals - and even in terms of how we interpret said scripture. Especially thoughts that mimic those of Galileo's time, thoughts that demand some kind of centralized physical importance on our part. We simply can't predict what God has done in creation based on His revealed focus on us our redemption. God is more than capable of giving us His full attention without diluting in the slightest whatever other purposes He may have in this creation.
But I think to most anyone who has grown up on Star Trek and sci-fi in general and is old enough to remember when we looked out and wondered if there were planets outside the solar system, it is simply amazing and exciting to be living in a time when this particular door of understanding and knowledge has been opened.
JIm
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