THE BENIGN UNIVERSE
It’s a remarkable fact, and something scientists have puzzled over for many years, but the universe itself is supremely and surprisingly biofriendly. If it wasn’t just the way it is, there would be no life. And it’s not just a few things that make life possible. There’s a vast array of seeming coincidences that make it possible for the universe to support life. Scientists have called these coincidences utterly astonishing and by various other superlatives, for if any of them were different by no more than a hair’s breadth, life itself could not exist. It seems as if the basic fabric of the physical universe is geared towards life.
It is evident in every aspect of existence. Looked at from the submicroscopic viewpoint, the physical universe is constructed almost entirely of more or less ‘empty’ space inhabited by a well-ordered soup of the subatomic particles that comprise matter and its energies. If the electromagnetic and other forces between these subatomic particles were less than they are, then atoms, molecules, solar systems, galaxies, and indeed the entire universe would fly apart.
If, on the other hand, these forces were much greater, then the subatomic particles would be so tightly compressed that the atomic and molecular interactions required by life processes would become impossible, like swimming in molasses – or concrete. Electromagnetic and intra-atomic forces are all optimal in value.
Then there’s the weight of subatomic particles. That is just right, too. Neutrons, for example, are heavier than protons by a minuscule amount. If it were the other way around, so physicists have calculated, the protons would all have decayed into neutrons long ago. And without protons, there would be no chemistry – and no life.
Protons also carry a positive electric charge, identical but opposite to that of the electron. There is no apparent reason for this equality, yet were it not so, atoms and molecules would never have formed. In short, the detailed organization of matter at the subatomic level is not just superlatively biofriendly, it’s essential to the very existence of the material universe.
It’s the same story when you look at things from an astronomical viewpoint. First of all, there’s this mysterious force we call gravity. Why should it have the particular strength it does? Why not more – or less? It is gravity that holds the universe together in a dynamic, yet stable, manner. If it were too strong, everything would fall into one massive black hole. Too weak, and no moons would travel around their planets, no planets would orbit their suns, and no suns would circulate in an orderly fashion around the black holes at the centres of their respective galaxies.
The strength of gravity also determines the optimal spacing between the stars for a life-supporting universe. If the stars were not spaced so very far apart, they would all fall into each other, or at least life would be continuously disrupted by the effect of near misses with neighbouring stars. Passing stars would rip planets out of their orbits, and generally unbalance what is actually a well-ordered universe.
In fact, the stars are more or less perfectly spaced. On a scale in which the earth is the size of a marble, our sun would be three hundred yards away. But our closest stellar neighbours would be at a distance of around forty-nine thousand miles. Stars and their planets are separated by ample space to avoid interstellar mayhem, yet not so far apart as to fly off on their own. The black holes at the centre of galaxies are shepherds to the stars, just as stars are shepherds to their planets, and planets to their moons. And the binding force is gravity. A mysterious force whose strength is entirely biofriendly.
Then there are the extraordinary properties of some of the everyday things around us. Water, for instance, exhibits unique properties possessed by no other substance. Yet without these properties, life could not exist. There is, for instance, no other liquid with the same universal capacity to dissolve and transport substances. Its role in photosynthesis – the way in which solar energy is introduced into the food cycle – is also critical. It is intimately related to the origins of all atmospheric oxygen. And the unusually large amount of heat required for its evaporation enables mammals to more easily regulate their body temperature by sweating.
Then there’s its peculiar property of expanding when it solidifies. This makes ice lighter than water, with the result that it floats, helping to insulate the underlying water. But for this, ice would sink to the bottom of oceans, lakes and rivers. There, far from sunlight, it would remain, while more ice sank from the surface layers. Soon, many of the oceans, lakes and rivers of the world would be frozen so solid that even in summer they would never thaw completely. The Arctic would be solid ice right down to the ocean floor.
Erosion, too, would not proceed as rapidly. Rock is split when water freezes in the cracks, and the expanding ice fragments its surface. This and other processes – like the weakly corrosive effect of carbon dioxide, which forms carbonic acid in water – are responsible for the slow erosion of entire mountain ranges. By this process, new minerals are released to fuel the organic needs of life in the plains below. The Ozarks of south-central USA, for instance, are the remaining stubs of ancient peaks once far higher than they are today. Erosion, together with the continuous movement of the earth’s crustal plates, is how the surface of the planet is continuously recycled. Without it, the earth’s biosphere would be a very different place.
Then there is the remarkable correspondence between the particular electromagnetic energy emissions of our sun (and many other stars) and the photosynthetic and absorptive properties of chlorophyll. The wavelengths of solar energy correspond exactly to the way molecules are put together. There is only one such section of wavelengths in the entire electromagnetic spectrum, and chlorophyll and many of the stars have both found it, quite ‘coincidentally’.
It is not that other substances could absorb energy from other electromagnetic wavelengths. Chlorophyll has not ‘evolved’ to accommodate the solar wavelengths on offer. At other wavelengths, neither chlorophyll nor other substances could capture solar energy. Too short, and they would be disintegrated as with X-rays and gamma rays. Too long, and the energy would be insufficient for absorption. The way it is, is the only way it could be to support organic life.
Then there’s space itself. Space has three dimensions. Why? Why not two or four – or more? Well, two dimensions would make it impossible to get about without constant collisions. Nothing could ever go over or under anything else, for there would be no ‘over’ or ‘under’. On the other hand, physicists have calculated that four or more spacial dimensions would create totally unstable planetary – and other – orbits. Three is just right.
No less remarkable than the biofriendliness of the universe is the way in which living organisms look after their own existence on our planet. It is not all competition and survival of the fittest. Life is also cooperative. Life supports life.
For life on earth to continue, there are a great many things that must be maintained within a very narrow range of parameters by the living organisms themselves. Nothing can be taken for granted. It is the living organisms that keep the planet habitable. Without them, we’d soon end up like Mars or Venus.
Firstly, there is the balance of oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, and other gases in the atmosphere. Almost everyone knows that plants and trees take carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, using the energy of sunlight to help incorporate the carbon into roots, leaves and branches, while at the same time releasing oxygen. Most other creatures breathe in oxygen, using it to ‘burn up’ carbon-based substances to provide energy for their physical existence, breathing out carbon dioxide in the process. It sounds simple enough, but without the maintenance of a fine balance in the relative concentrations of these two gases, life would be impossible. Yet this balance has been maintained for hundreds of millions of years – for as far back as indications can be found in the geological and fossil record. Only a little more oxygen would result in spontaneous combustion of the entire carbon-based biomass. A global conflagration, resulting in an atmosphere comprised largely of carbon dioxide. And too much carbon dioxide would lead to a runaway greenhouse effect, the biosphere rapidly becoming too hot to support organic life.
A similar finely tuned balancing act applies to the concentration of nitrogen – the element comprising nearly eighty percent of our atmosphere, essential to plant growth, and a key component of amino acids, proteins, and much else besides. Similarly with ozone, methane, nitrous oxide, ammonia, and other atmospheric gases. Likewise, atmospheric pressure, the salinity of the oceans, the recycling of essential elements, and so on. All of these are dynamically maintained in a delicate balance by the earth’s living organisms. Without living creatures, planet earth would be very different.
We take the sea’s salinity for granted. Yet, apart from a few specialist bacteria and invertebrates, living organisms can only exist at very low levels of salinity, which the oceans never exceed. How so? Water runs off the land due to rain and snowfall. Every day, it carries millions of tonnes of minerals and debris to the oceans. The water then evaporates, falling once again as rain and snow upon the land. But not so the minerals. Some falls as sediment to the ocean floor or builds up in river estuaries, but much goes into solution, increasing marine salinity.
About 540 million tonnes of minerals in solution reach the oceans every year. So the saltiness of the sea should be continually increasing. But it is not. Why not? Because armies of specialist plankton use the minerals – particularly calcium and silicon – in their shells and ‘skeletons’. When they die, they fall to the ocean floor, where they are destined to become sedimentary rock such as limestone. If there are more minerals, the plankton population increases; less minerals, and the population decreases. Every day, more than a million and a half tonnes of minerals are deposited on the sea bed, thanks to the industry of these little guys. It’s a perfect biological feedback system, keeping the oceans habitable.
And not only that. A nuclear heat engine, largely powered by the decay of radioactive uranium in the earth’s interior, causes continuous movement of the earth’s crustal plates. This movement recycles the minerals on the ocean beds, thrusting them up as continental hills and mountains, which are again eroded, finding their way back to the sea. By erosion, mountains supply the minerals essential to life on land and in the sea. Without this constant recycling, as the mountains were all eroded away, organic life would come slowly to a halt.
Then there are elements such as iodine and sulphur, essential to so many living creatures. Why don’t these elements all end up in the sea? It is because they are intercepted at the coast by seaweeds like kelp, which combine them with carbon and hydrogen, converting them into gases that blow back over the land in clouds and on-shore breezes, returning them to the earth with the falling rain. Every year, about a million tonnes of methyl iodide are recycled in this manner. Sufficient to maintain a healthy concentration of iodine in the soil, and hence in fruits and vegetables, and higher up the food chain.
And so the story continues. We could go on and on, detailing the remarkable ways in which the planetary biosphere maintains itself. Nature has many ways of keeping its own balance against the backdrop of a universe whose essential nature is biofriendly.
The fact is that everything seems to be perfectly arranged for the existence and maintenance of life. If one sees the physical universe as the ultimate and only reality, then there is no explanation for it. It is utterly astonishing. Theories of self-organization do not begin to explain the situation for they start out by accepting the material laws of nature as a done deal. But how do these laws arise? Why are things the way they are? Where does all this order, organization, and life-sustaining beneficence come from? Why should it be possible to discern any repeating trends in nature or any organization at all? Why isn’t everything infinitely spontaneous and chaotic?
The truth is that scientists have no convincing answers even for the fundamental order and organization in nature, let alone the fact that this order is pro-life, and that life itself is so amazingly self-sustaining. True, it has been argued that all these factors simply represent the remarkable ability of life to adapt to circumstances. In some instances, this may be a part of the picture, but how and where does life get its remarkable capacity for such adaptation?
From a mystical perspective, from the viewpoint of the One Being, there is nothing at all mysterious about it. The cosmos is well ordered and its inherent laws and principles support life because it is projected and sustained as an integrated whole from the Ocean of Life and Being itself. The fabric of the cosmos is one of order, harmony and integration because the universe is formed as a diversification of the One Harmony, the One Being into myriad parts. The same One Light illuminates all. The same One Life gives life to all. Living organisms are bound into one self-sustaining whole because their inner essence is one. They are all drops of the same Ocean of Being.
We are not amazed by the order and patterning we see in a kaleidoscope because we understand that one original pattern has been reflected and multiplied many times. The same principle lies behind the way in which the One Being projects the universe. He is the supreme Intelligence, the supreme Consciousness, and that intelligence and consciousness is projected and reflected into everything, and pervades all. And His kind of order and patterning is greater by far than that of an inert kaleidoscope. His essence is intelligence and consciousness, which are present everywhere. “Not a leaf falls but with His knowledge.”
Though they find it difficult to explain, scientists readily admit to this order and organization in nature. Many, however, baulk at the notion of inherent design, especially intelligent design, because this necessarily involves a designer – a divine Designer. And because the idea has been taken on board by Christian creationists, eager to support the idea of a six-day creation event, which happened about 4000 years ago.
In many ways, however, from the non-religious and universal viewpoint of the cosmos as an emanation of the One Being, the debate over whether or not there is a designer is a non-argument. In the One Being scenario, there is no independent divine Designer. What you see is what you have. We are looking at the Designer when we see order or design. “Nature is the living, visible garment of God.” And He is one with His garment. This is very different from the aloof and independent God of common religious conception. That is why I’ve largely avoided the God-word. The One Being is eternally present within every being and within every particle of the cosmos. Words simply fail to convey the reality.
So the universe as a projection of the One Being is naturally supportive of life or being, and the individual beings are all bound into one integrated and self-regulating whole. If everything is derived from and permeated by the One Being, how could it be otherwise? Bearing this in mind, let’s now take a look at the basic fabric of the material universe, at where we are right now – in space and time. Lost in space and time, if the truth be told. So it should be worth understanding something more of their intrinsic nature.
