The Story of Our Planet

Ralph D. Winter

Saturday, October 30, 2004

  This “story” is not so much to be believed as it is presented as a matter for hypothesis and speculation. Human beings will never know everything, and in trying to achieve an overall picture an extra amount of conjecture seems helpful.

It begins with a brief survey of secular perspectives about seven very basic events. This is what the world is thinking.

Then, what might be a Biblical interpretation of those events, as contrasted to the secular understanding? An attempt is made to paint an overall picture of the record of life on this planet—from God's viewpoint—and thereby to clarify, to the extent possible, the nature of God's mandate to man. This will explain my belief that God has sought not merely to list us in a Book of Life, but to enlist us in a struggle, a war, against the works of an intelligent, evil person, an all out activity which is distinctly more than to await the blessing of eternal life. This story, in effect, presents a rationale for the extensive battle into which we are recruited.

The Story: Introduction

The chart above is a brief summary of what some of current scientific and academic opinion would suggest. All aspects are not necessarily true but they are widely believed. At the bottom of the page, the last ten thousand years, we see what some call “The Young Earth.” The conjectures expressed here are that the “old” earth preceded Genesis 1:1, the Bible picking up the story at the point of a very recent “new beginning” as described in Mystery Six below.

The Seven Mysteries in the Background

These are curious and perplexing events for the origin of which there is little or no complete secular consensus:

1. Matter, 14 billion BC
2. Life, 3.5 billion BC
3. Predatory life, 500 million BC
4. Human life, 10, 000 BC
5. Archaic civilizations, 8,000 BC
6. A new beginning, 5,000 BC
7. A third new beginning, 2,000 BC

Mystery One
Matter, 14 Billion BC
The Origin of Inorganic Matter

Early humans quite possibly thought they lived on a flat earth. They were entertained at night by tiny lights in the sky moving in puzzling ways. Later humans learned that they existed on the surface of a huge spheroid hanging in space. Still later they discovered that the large hot, light- giving object daily crossing the sky was something their planet itself circled. Still later they learned that this immense hot object was just one of billions of stars in a swirled, structured galaxy which could be seen as a whole swath of tiny lights across the sky (called "the milky way") an object so large that travelling across it at 186,000 miles per second would take 100,000 years. This was hard-won knowledge. Relatively few individuals alive today comprehend all of this.

But that discovery, compared to what came later, was nothing. Less than a century ago?in my lifetime?humans further discovered that our entire, enormous galaxy was only one of at least 50 billion others, that most of the "stars" you can see at night aren't actually stars but galaxies. Not only that, but it became clear that the entire universe seems to be expanding.

Furthermore, this huge reality-no matter how far away from us are its scattered, distant parts-is apparently made up of a subset of tiny, mysteriously structured "atoms" which run from the simple to the very complex, all of them with far smaller centers comprised of some of the strangest realities of all. These atoms and their clusters (molecules) are joined by an entirely different kind of reality, referred to as radiation, forces and fields-electrical, magnetic and gravitational- combine in thousands of ways to constitute basic, inert, non-living matter, that is, air, water, fire, sand, snowflakes, crystal structures, mountains, clouds, thunderstorms, etc.

However, the most mysterious thing of all is the fact that the majority of our most respected astronomers now believe that all of this enormous universe popped out of a very tiny object about 14.5 billion years ago, blowing up big so suddenly that in the first fraction of a second it was already as big as our galaxy (which at the speed of light takes so long to cross)! Thus, this unaccountable expansion was enormously more rapid than the speed of light itself. This strange phenomenon is called the "Big Bang."

Obviously, nothing could be more difficult for common sense to accept. But most astronomers actually do believe it. This is all hugely mysterious, a veritable bundle of mysteries. We will simply call it Mystery One, The Origin of Inorganic Matter.

Mystery Two
Life, 3.5 Billion BC
The Origin of Organic Matter

Distinctly additional to the appearance of matter is the appearance of life-the living entity, the life form, that has been peering up at those tiny lights. Human beings who have been puzzling about the stars and other things represent a whole different, but equally mysterious reality, called the organic, that is, life forms ranging from pheromones and viruses to hippopotamuses-objects while composed out of inorganic matter, constitute a radically different, second, reality. While the inorganic is like a lumber yard, the organic is as different from it as the intricately designed homes produced from those materials. Life forms are utterly dependent on inorganic atoms, but inorganic atoms are not dependent on life.

And, (if you can believe it) all the objects in this additional organic world also derive in great mystery from something very small-each one in a development which could be called a "Little Bang"-namely microscopic specks incorporating billions of coded molecules which predict the form of life that will develop from each such speck. For example, every human being, without exception, has developed out of a very tiny speck called a zygote, the merger of an ovum with a sperm. Create the zygote and you have created the human. But this is still a very tiny speck.

Furthermore, the first appearance on this particular planet of life-of this phenomenon which I have called the "Little Bang"-is an added dimension beyond the first mystery, since even the very smallest and "simplest" forms of life are incredibly complex, and so far as is presently known, to be found on no other planet. The universe is enormously larger but mainly so far
away as to be very difficult to study. Microscopic reality is much closer but so tiny as to be equally difficult to study.

However, whether scientists try to peer into the nucleus of an atom in the inorganic world, or into the nature of tiny pre-embryonic life in the organic world, they have come to no consensus whatsoever about origins, that is, where these things came from. Yes, once in existence, both astronomic and microscopic reality can be watched in ongoing development, tracked and predicted to some extent, but absolute origins of either matter or life are still utterly mysterious.

We might note that while scientists have no significant consensus about absolute origins, they have to some extent agreed not to think about them. Furthermore, "Evolution," one of the most widely held theories, that is, the concept of unaided, unguided, random evolution of life, is by no means universally accepted. Many thinkers have urged the recognition of "intelligent design" in nature. Even one of the most outspoken defenders of the theory of unaided evolution, Richard Dawkins, actually admits that design at least appears to have been involved, saying,
Biology is the study of complicated things that give the appearance of having been designed for a purpose.

Mystery Three
Predatory Life, 500 Million BC The Cambrian Explosion

Something only recently reported is evidence that, long before the appearance of human beings, the lengthy record of the development of life suddenly burst into new complexity and for the first time displayed predatory forms of life?at every level from bacteria to visible animals. Richard Fortey, Director of the British Museum, in his recent book Life, expresses this view, which was also reported in National Geographic.

The sudden diversity of the Cambrian Explosion, so-called, is mystery enough-it is the last thing which orthodox Darwinism would want to discover. Nothing could be more perplexing for those who assumed a gradual evolution of life. Less often mentioned, but equally, if not even more mysterious, is the simultaneous appearance of all kinds of creatures displaying (either or both) anatomical defense mechanisms or tools of aggression and destruction. Why this all of a sudden?

Mystery Four
Human Life, 10,000 BC
Homo Sapiens

A fourth mystery looms into view as soon as we go beyond the genetic common denominators of all life to notice the very significant difference between animal life in general and that particular form of animal life, homo sapiens sapiens.

How did this new, very recent, very intelligent, reflective animal suddenly come into being? Scientists, again, present no consensus. Various pre-human forms of life-the hominids and even the Neanderthals-had the opportunity in what would appear to be far far more than 11,000 years to selectively breed plants and animals. That intelligence did not appear, and, of course, nothing like computer chips ever appeared in those lineages. Recently, DNA studies have definitively ruled out the Neanderthals, who were around for maybe 100,000 years, as precursors to humans.

The actual record of homo sapiens is very mixed. Homo sapiens has destroyed more living species than any other form of life. Furthermore, no other form of animal life has been as dangerous to itself. Humans are their own worst enemy. The most ancient fossil remains give evidence of both homicide and cannibalism. The historic record of merciless genocide is very nearly incredible. This cannot easily be accounted for.

Mystery Five
The Archaic Civilizations, 8,000 BC

Intelligent enough to develop plants and ani- mals genetically, man was also able to build cities and civilizations, typically incorporating harsh- ness, human sacrifice, and bizarre religious activity. Furthermore, the so-called archaic civilizations do not seem to have evolved slowly but spring into being suddenly.

Thus, constituting a fifth mystery is the sudden and unprecedented rise of human culture, or civilization. Neither computer chips nor automobiles could have emerged from the work of intelligent but solitary individuals. Many things have happened today only because a whole globe of intelligent humans have worked in an awareness of each other?s progress. Just as computers working in tandem have greater capacity, so humans in advanced collaboration have done (and are doing) otherwise impossible things.

The so-called "archaic" civilizations (using Toynbee's term) seem to appear without background. The Egyptian Sphinx and pyramids appeared in the earliest portion of Egyptian history. The Stonehenge circle in England was apparently more sophisticated in an earlier construction. The very sophisticated Sumerian society from which Abraham came had been in decline for 800 years; how it got started is a mystery. The Teohuacans who preceded the Inca empire created more refined pottery. The sudden appearance of these early advanced civilizations is, in fact, in itself so mysterious a phenomenon that some secular scholars have suggested even higher civilizations preceded them. Others guess that they must have appeared already highly developed from outer space. The apparent sudden- ness and sophistication of their origin therefore remains a mystery.

Mystery Six
A New Beginning, 5,000 BC

In view of all this evil, it is possible that Genesis 1:1 and following, may refer to a massive asteroidal devastation of a huge section of the earth-gutting the entirety of what we call the
"Fertile Crescent" of the Middle East?followed by a new beginning in that area. In that case, the
"days" of Genesis might be describing the gen- eral sequence of things following a major such collision. A chart in Scientific American (March 2002) shows 60 major catastrophes in the last 500 million years. The results each time could easily be described as "formless and void" (the Biblical phrase for the desolation following a war). The dust hurled into the air produces at first total darkness, gradually thinning out to allow a glow of light each day, finally you can actually see the sun and the moon, etc. Surviving humans in other parts of the planet would be eyewitnesses.

In this new beginning we note that Genesis 1 describes the re-creation of both animals and man without the carnivorous violence endemic in all other parts of the earth-that is, plants, animals, and man are herbivorous. This new beginning
did not last many generations, and with inter-marriage with other humans outside that area, carnivorous behavior took over again.

The book of Genesis also records a second new beginning with a man named Noah. This also did not last long.

Mystery Seven
A Third New Beginning, 2,000 BC
The Abrahamic Period

Another new beginning, the seventh mystery, is what the New Testament actually calls a mys- tery. It was not supposed to have been a mystery down through Jewish history, since it was made clear to Abraham in Genesis 12:3. This mystery involves a radically different way of looking at things. This new perspective was courteously or euphemistically called by the Apostle Paul a mystery instead of a blind spot. In Luke 24 we note that Jesus went further when He bluntly stated that His hearers ought to have understood what they apparently did not-that a chosen people was called both to be blessed and also to be a blessing, called to special service not just to survival, and to extend that blessing to all the world.

The Jewish people, flawed and imperfect though that people may be, despite unusual persecution and misunderstanding, has clearly set a world record in the advancement of human life. Jewish people have excelled in almost every field. Their contributions in proportion to their actual population has no comparable example in any other human tradition.

Meanwhile, something about the intrinsic Jewish element in Christianity and Christianity itself has been the prime mover in the enormous, difficult-to-explain aspects of superiority of Western culture. Many scholars, representing a wide variety of theories, have sought to explain what has been the secret of the"Rise of the West"(Example: Guns, Germs, and Steel by Jared Diamond), even the Chinese government. After checking out many strands within the Western cultural colossus to discover "the secret," some high up Chinese officials have decided the unique element is in the realm of the dominant religion of the West. (See the first page of the opening chapter of Jesus in Beijing by David Aikman.)

However, from a strictly secular point of view the matter of the very nature of this new element in human history is not yet resolved. It can still be classified as a mystery. In any case, the "West and the Rest" is for better or worse the inevitable context of any immediate future for human civilization.