God’s Handiwork: A Total Solar Eclipse
This CNN iReport video of today’s total solar eclipse was shot by a gentleman in Siberia. This video confirms the scriptural passage which states that the heavens declare the glory of God. Total solar eclipses are rare and wonderful occurrences which don’t just happen on every planet. Gonzalez and Richards, in their book The Privileged Planet, hypothesize that it is no coincidence that our planet is the only planet in the solar system on which total solar eclipses occur. Several factors are involved. First, the moon and the Sun are two of the roundest measured bodies in the Solar system (required for the “perfect” match). The apparent size of both heavenly bodies are almost identical. The Sun is some 400 times farther away from earth as the moon, but it is also some 400 times larger than the moon. The result is that they appear to be the same size from the surface of the earth.
Is this coincidence? Or is it the plan of a designer who designed our planet in such a way as to encourage and enable scientific discovery? Solar eclipses have played an important role in scientific discovery. Einstein’s Theory of General Relativity was confirmed due to a solar eclipse in 1919. Solar eclipses allow the sun’s full corona to be visible to ground-based observers leading to an understanding of the composition of stars. Total solar eclipses have also enabled scientists to understand the Earth’s rate of rotation and its change over time.
It is also interesting to note that the Moon is gradually receding from earth at a rate of 3.82 centimeters per year. At the same time, the Sun’s apparent size is increasing by 6 centimeters per year. These two processes will end total solar eclipses at some time in the future. In the words of Gonzalez and Richards:
This relatively small window of opportunity also happens to coincide with the existence of intelligent life. Put another way, the most habitable place in the Solar System yields the best view of solar eclipses just when observers can best appreciate them.
The total solar eclipse is just one of many scientific findings which support the idea that the Earth is a special place designed for the existence of intelligent rational creatures and for their discovery of the universe in which they live.