Page 70 - Allah's Art of Detail

68 ALLAH'S ART OF DETAIL

The Size of the Earth

When people stand up and begin walking, they feel no

pressure in an upward or downward direction. Sitting, walking,
and running are exceedingly mundane activities. Yet each time
people engage in such activities, they are completely unaware
that they are resisting a very powerful gravitational force.
The most important reason for this is the size of Earth. If it
were just slightly smaller, gravity would be far weaker, the plan-
et’s atmosphere would fragment and disappear, and we would
be unable to remain stable in the world. If the Earth were larger,
gravity would increase considerably and various poisonous gas-
es would make our atmosphere lethal. Even if we managed to
protect ourselves from these gasses, we would be unable to
move.
Yet such a problem never arises, because Earth’s size has
been determined in a manner that makes human life possible.

The conditions that combine are so delicate that there is no way
even one of them could have come about by chance. Scientists
1
have calculated the odds of such an event as 1 in 10123. Clearly,
the accidental formation of an environment suited to life is im-
possible.
Were Allah willed so, He could make each star and planet
suitable for life, arrange matters so that human beings had no
need to eat or drink, breathe gasses in specific proportions, or
gravity or the Sun. But Allah, Who created all that exists, willed
to bring together all of the astonishingly detailed conditions nec-
essary for life to remind people that He created and controls ev-
erything and to give us the opportunity to appreciate His infi-
nite might and turn to Him: