Genesis says that God made Adam out of dust. Science seems to have a similar view as it says we are made of dust from imploding stars. How can we be made of star dust? It is reckoned that after the first three minutes of the universe, matter consisted of hydrogen and helium. Gravity then drew these gases together. The closer they came, the higher the temperature rose. Eventually they burst into incandescence and stars were born. The temperatures were so huge and the energies were so high that the nuclei crashing against each other fused and built up into heavier elements, such as carbon, nitrogen and oxygen - the basic building materials of life. Some stars imploded at the end of their life, scattering these elements into space. The process then repeated on second-generation stars. Gradually, the atoms of life were built up. Our bodies are made up entirely of these atoms. If we want to sound romantic, our bodies are star dust, the ashes of long-dead stars if we dont - or, to sound really grim, our bodies are reprocessed nuclear waste. But there is not a nucleus of a carbon atom in our bodies that wasnt made in a star. That, to me, really is awe-inspiring. Yes, God used this universe to create all that was needed for the dust of our Earth to be life-giving and not sterile.
Posted on: Tue, 28 Oct 2014 15:44:39 +0000