John Clayton
In order for man to live on this planet, there are an enormous
number of conditions and materials that have to be very carefully
planned. When a group of scientists attempted to build a totally
closed self-sustaining habitat in which humans could live (called
Biosphere), it was such a colossal failure that even those who
had predicted its demise were amazed at how quickly conditions
inside the facility became intolerable.
One thing that seems to sustain man on the earth is the sheer
quantity of life on this planet. We find organisms in the air, in
all kinds of water, in the ground, in our bodies, and even inside
our machines. One of the most interesting discoveries made in
recent years has been the discovery that life exists in
hydrothermal vents, over a mile below the surface of the ocean.
As scientists have studied this life, they find it is very
similar to life on the surface of the water except it functions
without light. Complex chemical reactions fix carbon dioxide by a
process known as the Calvin cycle both in light dependent
organisms and in chemically driven organisms. The difference is
that light dependent organisms use chloroplasts to produce the
carbon dioxide, and chemosynthesis organisms are sulfide
oxidizing bacteria. Hydrogen sulfide is given off by the vents on
the sea floor. The bacteria take the sulfur in the hydrogen
sulfide and oxidize it producing energy. This energy drives all
life forms in the deep sea vents, producing sugars, fats, and
amino acids in living forms very much as plants do, but based on
sulfur. Like photosynthesis this process is highly complex, but
it sustains a huge number of animals in the sea and may sustain
life elsewhere.
It is hard to visualize how rotten egg gas (the nickname for
hydrogen sulfide) could be used to support abundant quantities of
life. The design of the system not only produces abundant life,
but it removes natural sulfur pollution from the sea. God's
biosphere works because of the wide variety and interdependence
of living things. When you realize that humans armed with
computers and huge amounts of data and hardware could not design
a biosphere that would work, it would seem that believing chance
to be the creating force of life on planet Earth would be out of
any reasonable possibility. Chemosynthesis and photosynthesis
speak loudly about God's wisdom and planning in the cosmos.
This article taken from: Does God Exist?, MayJun98.
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