Viewed from space, we see a small iridescent blue, ochre and jade green sphere, swathed in white cloud and suspended in the embracing blackness of endless space. It obviously lives - it shimmers with life even - yet this planet of ours, this world we came to call Earth, was originally nothing more than a nebulous amalgamation of discarded cosmic dust: the nuclear detritus from exploding stars. Despite our vast oceans, seas, placid lakes and lucent waterfalls - the magnificent mountain ranges, rolling plains, thick forests and lush green meadows - the genesis of our world gave no indication of a future life at all. In fact, if we travel back in time, we would find no signs of anything resembling life at all; nothing more than a tormented depiction of Hades itself. Massive clouds of hydrogen enriched by the celestial remains of a violent past had slowly, over a seeming infinity of time, contracted and compressed into ever denser and denser formations of matter, and this gradual coalescence had eventually resulted in the creation of what became our planet. It was, however, in no way a livable proposition, but a poisonous and deadly system – totally unsuitable for the propagation of life; or so it had appeared some four billion years ago. Earth, at that time, was an insane turbulence of almost boiling oceans with little or no land at all. Massive volcanic explosions had spewed poisonous gasses outwards, upwards - everywhere - and the atmosphere was therefore toxic: totally unbreathable. Fragmented debris from alien meteorites penetrated the depths in a hissing, roaring mass of scalding agitation and that had then created tumultuous tidal waves well over a mile high. These towering walls of foaming water would rage around the planet unobstructed and in no way at all could it be imagined that life could flourish in this madness - that notion would have seemed completely untenable! And if life had, by some strange chance, appeared, then what of the Sun? Actually a nuclear fusion reactor of incredible power, it was hardly a benign influence, and with no atmosphere to protect the surface of the planet at that time, an extremely deadly one at that! This blazing star had seared the surface of the Earth with lethal ultra-violet rays so strong that literally nothing could survive at all. It’s difficult to conceive of such a truly hostile and forbidding environment. The planet had spun much faster then, with night following day in just a few hours, and during those short nights an enlarged Moon brashly illuminated the scalding waters of the planet with a silvered intensity. Nearer, in those early days, it had exerted a powerful gravitational force upon the ocean and huge tidal surges had consequently ebbed and flowed above the molten furnace festering deep below the surface where glowing gashes in the seabed oozed lava into the turmoil. These fissures were everywhere - bleeding steadily and cauterizing the ocean floor. Yet incredibly, it was from this demented environment that microbial life had somehow eventually emerged unscathed, and we live today because of that seeming impossibility. It’s a truly remarkable story - the complexities involved in the appearance of life - yet with its advent, we are then witness to a constant and extended struggle with regard to its actual survival. The various travails and misfortunes involved in the evolution of humankind engender a sense of awe and we wonder just why, in the overall scheme of things, some as yet unexplained force went to so much trouble on our behalf. What was the reason for life? It hardly seems credible that so much meticulous effort could be involved without purpose. To be continued. https://newiching/
Posted on: Wed, 29 Oct 2014 20:20:52 +0000
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