Is The Universe an Accident?
Why is the universe what it is? Was it planned by someone, like God?
Imagine you go on a spacecraft to the moon and when you arrive you have nothing. Then, you find a nice modern house with all your needs like food, water, beds, entertainment (and an Xbox One X, hehe), some of your friends, a pool and a pet. Oh, plus you find a random $100 million dollars on the bench.
You could just about live there for ever! But, of course, this would be an extremely rare and lucky find!
That’s like life on Earth. It’s so rare — like finding a house on the moon. There are so many things that have to happen for Earth to actually hold life. If they had never happened, then you definitely wouldn't be alive — no one would!
Life is almost impossible, leading some scientists to believe the universe is not an accident — that it was created on purpose.
Why There is Life on Earth
The needs that make life on Earth actually possible are:
- The location of the solar system is far from any dangerous hazards. The solar system is safely nestled in a harbor in between two major spiral arms in the milky way, and its orbit is almost a perfect circle so the solar system doesn't get too close to the inner galaxy.
- There are few stars near the sun, reducing the chance of gravitational tugs and gamma-ray bursts and also exploding stars called supernovae.
- Our sun is long-lasting and stable. Stars more massive than the sun burn hotter and usually don’t live long enough for planets to develop life.
- On Earth, we are at just the right distance from the sun. Earth orbits (circles) in the Goldilocks zone, where the planet receives just enough energy for water to exist as a liquid. Too far, the water would be locked up in ice. Too close, the water would evaporate into the atmosphere.
Feeling pretty lucky to be alive right now, right?! But there’s more…
5. The Earth has the right materials to make a sustainable core. But not just any core — Earth’s core has the right stuff for a magnetic field which is like a gigantic force field around the Earth that protects us from solar flares and solar storms.
6. We have a big moon to stabilize our axial wobble. The Earth is tilted 23.5 degrees but would tilt way more without the moon.
7. We have an ozone layer to block harmful rays. Say if a solar flare from the sun somehow got past the magnetic field, well there is also an ozone layer which is like another gigantic force field that goes around the Earth. Ancient plantlike organisms in the ocean added oxygen to the atmosphere and created a high-altitude layer of ozone that shields land species from dangerous radiation.
There are more than two hundred needs for life to be possible — every single one of which must be perfectly met for life to exist. Even if one thing isn’t met, then life can’t happen and everything is messed up.
There is a really low chance all that could happen by accident. That’s why some scientists think it was done on purpose. But other scientists think this was all one big coincidence which happened by accident.
Is There Life Beyond Earth?
Other planets may also have life, such as Kepler-186f and Kepler-22b and HD 40307g. Scientists are sure there is life out there on other planets, they’re just not certain of which.
For another planet to have life, though, would mean that planet is lucky to have the more than two hundred needs for life that must be met for life to exist. All those things lined up for Earth, so there’s every chance it has happened somewhere else, too.
I believe there’s definitely a 100% chance life exists somewhere else other than Earth. The universe is MASSIVE — about 46.5 billion light years in radius, but that’s only the observable universe (all the universe we can see). Because the universe is so big, it’s likely the “lucky” needs occurred somewhere else and there’s definitely life on another planet. Perhaps there even used to be life on mars a long time ago…still something scientists are trying to discover.
So, what do you think? Is “life” an accident, or is someone or something creating this “life”?
About Me: I’ve traveled to so many places in the world, that’s why i like geography and space. I’m on Medium to learn and share ideas!
