Page 166 - The Creation Of The Universe

164 THE CREATION OF THE UNIVERSE

ly raise the temperature of the fuel to a very high degree (as with a blow-
torch). But once the fuel starts burning, the carbon in it enters into the re-
action with oxygen quite rapidly and a great amount of energy is released.
This is why it's so hard to get a fire going without another source of heat.
But after combustion begins, a great deal of heat is produced and this can
cause other carbon compounds nearby to catch fire as well and so the fire
spreads.
When we look into this matter more carefully, we can see that fire it-
self is a most important example of Creation. The chemical properties
of oxygen and carbon have been so arranged that these two elements en-
ter into a reaction with one another (combustion) only when a great
amount of heat is already present. It's a good thing, too because if this
weren't the case, life on this planet would be very unpleasant if not down-
right impossible. If oxygen and carbon were even slightly more willing to
react with one another, the spontaneous combustion–self-ignition–of peo-
ple, trees, and animals would become a commonplace event whenever the
weather got a little too warm. Someone walking through a desert for ex-
ample might suddenly burst into flame at noon when the heat was at its
most intense; plants and animals would be exposed to the same risk. It is
evident that life would not be possible in such an environment.
On the other hand, if carbon and oxygen were slightly more noble (that
is, slightly less reactive) than they are, it would be much more difficult to
light a fire in this world than it already is: indeed, it might even be impos-
sible. And without fire, we not only would have been unable to keep our-
selves warm: it's quite likely that there would never have been any tech-
nological progress on our planet because that progress depends upon the
ability to work materials such as metal and without the heat provided by
fire, purifying and working metal is all but impossible.
What all this shows is that the chemical properties of carbon and oxy-
gen have been arranged so as to be the most suitable for the needs of
mankind. Concerning this, Michael Denton says:
This curious unreactivity of the carbon and oxygen atoms at ambient
temperatures, combined with the enormous energies inherent in their
combination once achieved, is of great adaptive significance to life on