An
LDS acquaintance of mine has recently discovered science, it seems,
and no longer accepts the scriptural account of Creation. Among his
prolific online writings, I was disappointed to read a sarcastic
dismissal of Earth and its wondrous balance of elements and materials
as the fruit of divine Intervention. Instead, he said, the elements
of the earth were merely the products of matter from stars. No divine
tinkering needed.
Having
recently discovered science, I am sure he feels that his viewpoint is
highly scientific and intelligent. Sadly, it’s novice science
at best.
I
am not saying that science forces us to recognize God. God will not
take away the need for us to approach Him with faith. Yet, while
there is plenty of room for atheism among thoughtful scientists, I
feel that science properly understood should lead us to wonder and
marvel at the nature of this planet and the stuff we are made of.
Yes,
we are in part the stuff of stars. Our tangible stuff, flesh and
bone, nails and hair, blood and sweat, is made of a handful of
elements. Science tells us that the hydrogen present in water,
proteins, sugars, and nearly every compound throughout our bodies,
was created in the first few moments of the Big Bang. The rest of the
elements that make up this earth were largely formed much later in
the core of stars, where powerful processes gradually convert
hydrogen into helium.
Later,
some of this helium can become converted into carbon, and carbon and
other light elements can become converted into still heavier
elements, either in stars or supernovas.
It
is from a stellar genealogy that we inherit the elements we depend on
for life and for the majesty of planet Earth, with its rich crust,
mineral-laden waters, life-giving atmosphere, and its magnetic core.
That core, by the way, is another of the life-preserving wonders we
have inherited from the stuff of stars.
(Ironically,
while that mass of metal is located as deeply as possible beneath our
feet, its magnetic field shields us far above our heads from the
solar wind, deflecting charged particles that would strip away the
upper atmosphere and leave us more vulnerable to harmful radiation. A
clever design/coincidence indeed.)
Our
physical bodies and the earth itself come from elements that were
forged in cycles of the birth and death of stars, one of the great
engines of Creation. So yes, you can say that we owe our physical
existence to stars. But I would suggest a little more thinking and a
little more curiosity are needed to understand what that actually
means, and to appreciate why our gratitude and wonder should not stop
there.
The
stellar process that gives rise to carbon is called the triple-alpha
process.
It’s beautiful and improbable, so much so that I would call it
brilliant, if not miraculous. There are two steps in this process
where an interesting coincidence is found.
In
the first step, two alpha particles (the nucleus of helium-4) combine
to form beryllium-8, and in the second step, beryllium-8 combines
with another alpha particle to form carbon-12. The coincidence is
that the energy levels of these particles seem perfectly tuned to
allow this reaction to occur in abundance, when otherwise it would be
rare. Wikipedia’s article on the
triple-alpha process
explains:
Ordinarily,
the probability of the triple alpha process would be extremely small.
However, the beryllium-8 ground state has almost exactly the energy
of two alpha particles. In the second step, 8Be + 4He
has almost exactly the energy of an excited state of 12C.
These resonances greatly increase the probability that an incoming
alpha particle will combine with beryllium-8 to form carbon.
The
existence of this resonance was predicted by Fred
Hoyle
before its actual observation, based on the physical necessity for it
to exist, in order for carbon to be formed in stars. In turn,
prediction and then discovery of this energy resonance and process
gave very significant support to Hoyle's hypothesis of stellar
nucleosynthesis,
which posited that all chemical elements had originally been formed
from hydrogen, the true primordial substance.
As
a side effect of the process, some carbon nuclei can fuse with
additional helium to produce a stable isotope of oxygen and release
energy….
This
creates a situation in which stellar nucleosynthesis produces large
amounts of carbon and oxygen but only a small fraction of these
elements is converted into neon and heavier elements. Both oxygen and
carbon make up the 'ash' of helium-4 burning. The anthropic
principle
has been controversially cited to explain the fact that nuclear
resonances are sensitively arranged to create large amounts of carbon
and oxygen in the Universe.
Wikipedia’s
article on Fred Hoyle,
the leading British astronomer who first realized that stars were the
engines for creating the elements, discusses how this atheist
realized that chance alone seemed inadequate to describe the universe
we lived in.
In
trying to work out the routes of stellar
nucleosynthesis, he observed that one particular nuclear
reaction, the triple-alpha process, which generates carbon, would
require the carbon nucleus to have a very specific resonance energy
for it to work. The large amount of carbon in the universe, which
makes it possible for carbon-based life-forms of any kind to exist,
demonstrated that this nuclear reaction must work.
Based
on this notion, he made a prediction of the energy levels in the
carbon nucleus that was later borne out by experiment.
These
energy levels, while needed to produce carbon in large quantities,
were statistically very unlikely. Hoyle later wrote:
Would
you not say to yourself, "Some super-calculating intellect must
have designed the properties of the carbon atom, otherwise the chance
of my finding such an atom through the blind forces of nature would
be utterly minuscule. A common sense interpretation of the facts
suggests that a superintellect has monkeyed with physics, as well as
with chemistry and biology, and that there are no blind forces worth
speaking about in nature. The numbers one calculates from the facts
seem to me so overwhelming as to put this conclusion almost beyond
question." —Fred Hoyle
It
is not just the supremely tweaked energy levels of certain particles
in the triple-alpha process that commands our wonder at the
improbability of carbon-based life. For one of many other factors,
the very existence of stars themselves should make us profoundly
suspicious of chance alone as an explanation for the universe.
The
fission and fusion occurring within the core of a star are processes
releasing such massive amounts of energy, like billions of atomic
bombs erupting simultaneously (100 billion hydrogen bombs per second
is an
estimate
on one physics website). This massive release of energy would cause a
star to explode violently outward if it were not for the massive
gravitational forces holding it together, forces that could cause the
star to collapse into a black hole or dead neutron star where it not
balanced by the energy release.
Gravity
is needed to pull matter together so intensely that fusion starts and
the star comes to life in the first place, yet it’s a
remarkably delicate balance between the strength of gravity and the
strength of electromagnetic and other forces that are required for a
star to exist at all.
Physicists
have marveled at the delicate balance of fundamental properties that
is required for stars to operate and make life possible.
The
properties of matter and energy that make life possible arise from a
handful of fundamental constants, like the strength of gravity and
the strength of the weak and strong nuclear forces, that influence
numerous aspects of the cosmos. The properties that allow stars to
exist and carbon to be formed are also linked to the ability of DNA
to function, of proteins to operate, and of liquid water to transport
nutrients in cells while also giving vapor and ice to govern the
climate of the planet.
When
I contemplate the challenge of fine-tuning fundamental properties of
matter to allow stars and planets to form, to allow clouds and
rivers, ears and eyes, chlorophyll and sugar, bacteria and great
whales, and brains that can create and appreciate music, I am
overwhelmed with wonder and surprise that it was even possible, no
matter how intelligent a Being was who wished to create.
I
am dumbfounded that a solution, such a brilliant optimum in the
balance of forces could be found among the countless possibilities,
almost all of which would lead to lifeless universes populated with
scattered, lonely wisps of sterile particles or little but raging
black holes or other dreary possibilities devoid of the brilliant and
diverse engines of creation we see in the stars that fill our skies
and gives us the stuff from which we are so delicately crafted.
We
are the stuff of stars, but don’t stop there. Stars are the
handiwork of a brilliant and loving God, or the result of
unbelievably fortunate accidents. This is where a touch of faith
comes in. Knowing through many personal experiences that a loving God
exists, I lean toward stars as yet another brilliant product of His
work rather than a crazy byproduct of randomness.
Jeff Lindsay has been defending the Church on the Internet since 1994, when he launched his
LDSFAQ website under JeffLindsay.com. He has also long been blogging about LDS matters on
the blog Mormanity (mormanity.blogspot.com). Jeff is a longtime resident of Appleton,
Wisconsin, who recently moved to Shanghai, China, with his wife, Kendra.
He works for an Asian corporation as head of intellectual property. Jeff and Kendra are the parents of 4 boys, 3 married and the the youngest on a mission.
He is a former innovation and IP consultant, a former professor, and former Corporate Patent
Strategist and Senior Research Fellow for a multinational corporation.
Jeff Lindsay, Cheryl Perkins and Mukund Karanjikar are authors of the book Conquering
Innovation Fatigue (John Wiley & Sons, 2009).
Jeff has a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Brigham Young University and is a registered US
patent agent. He has more than 100 granted US patents and is author of numerous publications.
Jeff's hobbies include photography, amateur magic, writing, and Mandarin Chinese.