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Divine Hiddenness and the Existence of God

Reasons to Believe — Mon, 26 Jan 2026 20:16:12 +0000

Divine hiddenness refers to the idea that God is absent or quiet in our world. This skeptical philosophical assertion suggests that a loving, personal God would make himself known and obvious to everyone. Yet, it seems like God remains hidden. In philosophical terms, this concept is known as the argument from divine hiddenness.

If you’ve ever wondered why God’s existence seems hidden, you’re not alone—both Christians and skeptics alike have asked this question throughout history.

As we look into this topic together, let’s think about why God’s silence might be more complicated than it seems. We’ll explore the different layers that contribute to this theological discussion.

What Is Divine Hiddenness?

There are two types of so-called divine hiddenness:

The alleged hiddenness raised by skeptics who question whether God exists.
The sense or feeling of distance from God that some Christians experience at times.

Let’s first explore the skeptical challenge that divine hiddenness may best be explained as evidence against God’s existence.

The argument from divine hiddenness raises an interesting and difficult question:

If God is perfectly loving and wants a relationship with us, why isn’t it more obvious that he’s here?

The argument is based on the idea that a truly perfectly loving God would make sure everyone knows he exists, which would naturally lead to belief. Yet, many people—even those who genuinely desire to connect with God—still struggle to perceive him and end up not believing.

The Parent-Child Analogy

Consider the analogy of a loving parent who deeply desires to be known and loved by their child. However, if the parent remains hidden, the child might assume the parent doesn’t exist or doesn’t care—despite the parent’s provision for their child behind the scenes.

In a similar way, the divine hiddenness argument affirms that God’s apparent hiddenness means either:

he’s not perfectly loving, or
he doesn’t exist at all.

Could there be reasons, beyond our understanding, for God’s hiddenness—reasons that might help us grow or shift our perspective in ways we don’t expect?

Could there be more than meets the eye?

We believe so. But first, let’s examine a formal argument made in support of skepticism regarding this issue.

The Schellenberg Hiddenness Argument

The Schellenberg Hiddenness Argument was created by philosopher J. L. Schellenberg. It raises an intriguing question: If a perfectly loving God exists, there shouldn’t be any “reasonable nonbelievers”—people who are reasonably open to having a relationship with God but don’t see or experience God.

Schellenberg argued that if God truly wanted to connect with us, he would reveal himself to everyone, making it impossible not to believe in him. The presence of non-Christians who are open to God but still do not believe suggests to Schellenberg that such a God may not exist.

A Brief Biblical Response to Schellenberg

Of course, this skeptical argument contradicts Scripture in several ways regarding the cause of unbelief.

Consider these three biblical points:

Scripture teaches that God has taken the initiative and has sufficiently unveiled himself in:
- the order of the cosmos,
- the human conscience,
- the history of Israel,
- the historic life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and
- in Scripture itself.
The Bible teaches that no one is neutral about God. It also explains that unbelief is tied to the person’s sinful condition of wanting to avoid moral responsibility before God (see Romans 1).
The hiddenness claim doesn’t rule out the many clear and logical arguments that rationally support God’s existence (cosmological, teleological, moral, ontological, etc.).

The Bible also emphasizes that God—being a perfectly loving God—values our free will. He gives us the ability to choose or reject a personal relationship with him.

This special gift allows us to connect with God authentically, rather than being compelled by overwhelming evidence—just as a child or spouse flourishes under a genuine love from free will rather than obligation.

Similarly, it’s like a parent who lets their child grow up and make their own choices, even if the child sometimes decides differently than the parent wishes. To reflect on the hide and seek analogy of the parent and child, if the parent were to intercede every time the child had doubts, then the child wouldn’t be allowed to grow in confidence and maturity.

Faith also plays an important role. In Hebrews 11:1, faith is described as being sure about what we hope for and believing in what we can’t see. Faith asks us to trust beyond what is right in front of us — a trust that can grow stronger even when we feel God is hidden from us.

Could it be that divine hiddenness invites us into a deeper, more personal journey of faith in life that ultimately strengthens our relationship with God?

Absolutely.

Human Reason and the Argument from Nonbelief

Next, let’s look at a similar argument about divine hiddenness: the argument from nonbelief.

This argument asks that if a loving and all-powerful God exists, why is there so much nonbelief in the world? According to the argument, the presence of widespread nonbelief argues against the idea of a God who is both loving and intent on forming relationships with his human creatures.

At its core, this argument is built on Schellenberg’s ideas and assumes that a good, perfectly loving God would make sure everyone has been presented with enough information to believe in him. (Don’t forget, from a biblical standpoint, God has sufficiently revealed himself.)

But if God’s presence were as obvious as the physical world around us, then not believing would be entirely unreasonable.

The reality that many smart, thoughtful, and rational people remain unsure about God’s existence raises questions about whether such evidence is available or if God is hiding for a reason. Why would he hide from people who are open to discovering his existence?

As an answer to this question, perhaps people are not as open and neutral as they think they are when it comes to questions relating to God.

When we consider the argument from nonbelief, we must grapple with the idea that “human understanding and belief” might require more than just agreeing with facts and intellectualism. Part of our understanding might require that we place our faith (or trust) in what conclusions our human reason leads to.

The Nonbelief Argument and the Limits of Reason

With the argument from nonbelief, it’s important to note how the idea is strictly and directly tied to human reason. While our ability to reason is strong, it has limits, especially when it comes to things that extend beyond what we can see or touch. The divine, by definition, goes beyond what we can fully understand through human logic and challenges us to press beyond reason alone.

While human reason is a profound tool that helps us understand the complex world around us, make sense of our experiences, and create meaningful narratives, when it comes to divine matters, our reasoning can encounter its own set of challenges.

We want to be especially careful when it comes to discussing human reason and God. Topics of faith and theology can extend beyond reason but matters of faith cannot contradict reason. For example, the historic Christian doctrines of the Trinity and the incarnation can’t be fully comprehended by the finite human mind but these doctrines are not actual formal logical contradictions. So faith extends beyond reason, but faith doesn’t damage or oppose reason. In historic Christianity, faith and reason are seen as compatible and complementary.

The argument from nonbelief suggests that if God were evident, rational individuals would naturally believe in him. The fact that many people don’t believe suggests that either God isn’t as evident as he could be, or that our human reasoning alone is somehow not enough to “see” him. Or maybe human beings are biased against God because of sin (see Romans 8:7–8).

God often exceeds what can be observed or understood through logic alone. This thought creates a challenge: How can we reconcile the limits of human reason with the profound nature of an infinite and eternal divine being? Could it be that God is understood not only through our thoughts but also through our hearts or internal workings, like life experiences and spiritual searching?

The capacity for faith—which often complements reason—plays a critical role. While reason looks for answers based on evidence, facts, and logic, faith encourages us to believe in things that we can’t fully understand or see but still have a reasonable basis to believe to be true. This is reflected in the Christian perspective of “faith seeking understanding.”

This relationship between reason and faith suggests that belief in God and God’s existence may require more than just rational support. Hebrews 11:6 says that “anyone who comes to him [God] must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” The faith component offers a point against the divine hiddenness argument.

Ultimately, the relationship between the argument from nonbelief and the factual limits of human reason prompts us to expand our understanding of how we come to know and believe in God. While reason is critically important, it’s only one piece of a bigger picture.

Biblical Response for a Perfectly Loving God

The Bible gives us many insights into the nature of God and his relationship with us. This relationship is fundamentally personal and goes beyond mere intellectual engagement. It extends beyond the confines of logic and reason. It’s where something inside us knows that “God’s invisible qualities . . . have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made” (Romans 1:20).

The Bible shows God as a divine being who wants to engage with us on a heart level. We see this in his interactions and words throughout the Bible—from walking with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden to his covenant with Abraham, and throughout the life and teachings of Jesus Christ.

“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart” (Jeremiah‬ ‭29‬:‭13‬).

Finding and “seeing” God is rooted not just in formal reason but also in love and relationship. God invites the non-Christian into such a trusting relationship.

But what about Christians who struggle with a hidden God?

Reconciling A Personal God and Distance

Let’s now shift to the challenge that Christians encounter when God seems distant.

Understanding God—a “hidden” God—involves more than acknowledging he exists. It requires trust, love, and spiritual growth—all of which come from the human heart. Trust grows through experiences and a willingness to rely on God’s wisdom and promises, even when we can’t see clear and undisputed evidence for his existence.

Love, as described in the Bible, is the foundation of our relationship with God. Love encourages us to respond to his love with our own: “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19).

A Growing Personal Relationship

Spiritual growth is another essential part of this relationship.

As we journey in faith, we face various trials and challenges that test our beliefs and ultimately help us mature. James 1:3 reminds us that “the testing of your faith produces perseverance . . . that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

Spiritual growth emerges from difficult experiences. In other words, at the point where many Christians encounter “divine hiddenness,” that’s where God sustains them on their journey of faith.

In short, the biblical answer to the argument from nonbelief asks us to focus on reason and matters of the heart. Scripture tells us that “God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble” (James 4:6). When we realize that God wants a personal relationship with us, we take a step toward opening ourselves to experiencing the divine in ways that go beyond mere evidence and into the depths of maturing faith.

If God Exists, Why Doesn’t He Show Himself More Clearly?

Many of us, whether we are Christians or skeptics, have wondered: Why doesn’t God show himself more clearly, especially to those who are genuinely trying to find him?

This query revisits the central point of divine hiddenness, which asserts that people would expect a loving God to make his existence obvious. However, the truth of God’s presence is more subtle and complex.

As we unpack Christian responses as to why God doesn’t more overtly show himself, let’s again recognize the many ways he has revealed himself to us.

First, there’s his Word—Scripture.

Revelation Through Scripture

The Bible is a powerful testament to God’s character, his promises, and how he interacts with people. Through its stories, lessons, and prophecies, we can learn about who he is and what he wants for us. The written words of Scripture effectively allow us to “see” him.

Revealed Through Creation

Then there’s God’s world—his creation—which entails all of existence, from Earth to the ends of the cosmos. The natural world around us is a testament to God’s creativity and power. From the intricate details built into the smallest cells to the incomprehensible vastness of the starry sky, creation speaks of the Creator’s grand, purposeful universe.

As Psalm 19:1 says, “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands.”

Jesus Was Not Hidden

Perhaps most importantly, God has revealed himself through his Son. In Jesus, we see what God’s love and grace look like, giving us a clear path to understand and connect with him. Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection are at the heart of the Christian faith and show us the intense depth of God’s loving commitment to humanity.

Freedom to Choose

If God showed himself clearly and directly, like the sun in the sky, believing in him might start to feel more like an obligation instead of something we want and get to do. Having the freedom to choose is important for any true relationship, as it lets us seek intimacy because of love, not because we feel forced to.

Encouraging Spiritual Growth

The challenges and uncertainties we face can expand our faith, trust, and love outward like an ever-widening circle. Just like a seed has to push through the soil to reach the sunlight, our life’s journeys can push us out of darkness and ignorance into God’s light.

A parent who has taught a child to be responsible watches a situation from afar to see if they’ve matured—not because they don’t love the child, but because they do. When the parent sees the child succeed and when the child realizes the parent trusted them on their own, faith in each other grows.

Could it be that God calls us, his children, into a more meaningful relationship of faith? Do the “growing pains” encourage personal growth and trust far beyond mere surface level? As we consider these questions, let’s stay open to the idea that there may be wisdom in how God’s hiddenness unfolds.

Divine Hiddenness and Human Faith

As we look further into the Schellenberg Divine Hiddenness Argument, it’s important to consider what the Bible says about why God seems hidden. From a biblical standpoint, God’s hiddenness doesn’t indicate his absence or lack of love. Instead, apparent hiddenness is a key part of his relationship with humanity that’s designed to build genuine faith and trust.

The hiddenness of God should be seen as a means to help us grow and mature. Just as a parent lets a child explore and learn on their own, God’s quiet presence encourages us to develop and to seek him earnestly.

The Bible stresses the vital role of faith and emphasizes that God desires a personal and voluntary relationship with us. As Hebrews 11:6 says, “Without faith it is impossible to please God.”

The Purpose of Divine Hiddenness

From a Christian perspective, God does not hide himself for no reason. His hiddenness serves to prompt genuine seeking. In our busy lives, many people say they’ve looked for God but didn’t find him. They use this apparent hiddenness as an argument to dismiss his existence and live their lives however they want.

God’s hiddenness isn’t meant to be a game of hide-and-seek, but a call to sincere pursuit. When we seek sincerely, “with all our heart,” it often means diving into deeper questions like “Why am I here?” or “What’s the purpose of life?”

Faith Beyond Certainty

The Bible reveals time and again that God values faith and belief that doesn’t rely purely on evidence.

In John 20:29 Jesus tells Thomas, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
In Matthew 12:39 Jesus warns, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.”
In 2 Corinthians 5:7 we read, “For we live by faith, not by sight.”
In Romans 1:17 the apostle writes that “The righteous will live by faith.”

These verses emphasize that faith serves as the driving force behind deeper belief in God’s existence. Faith also fosters a more trusting relationship with him—where we learn to rely on God’s promises and character. People who trust in God’s character no longer need constant signs or miracles as proof for something that stretches beyond our ability to fully comprehend.

This biblical approach helps us build a strong and lasting faith that can handle life’s uncertainties and challenges. By trusting in God’s presence and goodness, even when he feels hidden or distant, we develop a deeper, more authentic spirituality that isn’t shaken by the absence of signs.

Ultimately, divine hiddenness is not a void but a potential space for those willing to seek him sincerely. It challenges us to engage with God on a level that passes mere mental acknowledgment into a transformative relationship.

The Limits of Human Reason

As a further consideration of the argument from nonbelief, we observe that the theory is rooted purely in human reason, which is limited. When we think about human reason and understanding, we affirm that reason is necessary for knowing, but we must acknowledge that it falls short when it comes to fully grasping the concept of an infinite God.

The human mind is great at figuring out mysteries in the natural world, but there are instances where our reason is stretched thin, as in the two examples that follow. Similarly, many aspects of the divine remain mysterious and beyond our full comprehension.

Consider the complexity of the universe for a modern example that demonstrates the limitations of human reasoning. The vastness of space, the strange rules of quantum mechanics, and the enigma of dark matter and dark energy all push the boundaries of our understanding.

These phenomena inspire a sense of wonder and remind us that there’s so much more to the universe than we can currently or fully grasp. These wonders hint at a Creator’s existence.

The human brain is another marvel that challenges our comprehension. Even with all the progress in studying the brain (neuroscience), scientists are still working to understand consciousness and the intricacies of thought and emotion.

These complexities suggest that while reason can guide us, it may not always provide complete or crystal-clear answers.

When it comes to trying to understand God and the “why” of divine hiddenness, we must realize that we as mortal human beings have our limits.

As Isaiah 55:8–9 says,

‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the Lord. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.’

This verse reminds us that some aspects of God’s character, including what he does and why, are too big for us to fully understand. His higher ways and thoughts should encourage us, as creatures made in his image, to be humble and to trust him.

By accepting the limits of our humanity, we’re invited to see the divine with wonder and awe. When we recognize that some mysteries might never be solved, we allow ourselves to experience God in ways that go beyond our mental grasp. Such awe strengthens our faith through the reality of divine hiddenness.

The Hiddenness of God Explained

Man’s Hiding—Humanity’s Role in Resisting God

As we continue to unpack the hiddenness of God, it’s essential to recognize humanity’s role. Our separation from God began at the beginning in the Garden of Eden.

Genesis 3:8 paints a vivid picture of this moment: Adam and Eve, having chosen to sin, hid themselves—or at least tried to—from God. This act of hiding marked the start of humanity’s separation from the divine.

God’s original design was for an intimate, unbroken relationship with us. He walked with Adam and Eve in the garden, showing the closeness and fellowship he intended for his creation.

Yet, they chose to disobey. They ate fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil—an event known as original sin—and fractured their relationship with God. Adam and Eve made a barrier that was not meant to be there.

This separation wasn’t just physical. It was a spiritual divide that has continued throughout history and all generations.

On a personal and individual level, when thinking about why God seems hidden or distant, it’s important to understand that this doesn’t mean he doesn’t care. Apparent hiddenness doesn’t equate to divine indifference.

On the contrary, God’s distance can often be linked to our own actions and choices. Our sin has created a veil that obscures our view of him. It’s not that God wants to stay hidden; it’s that our hearts have turned away from him.

Throughout Scripture, God consistently reaches out to humanity to mend this fractured relationship and sometimes to execute judgment. His judgment can seem like he’s “turning away his face” or “hiding” due to people’s sin.

God’s hiddenness is a reminder of the chasm between human sin and divine holiness. But it also serves as a call to reconcile and points to Jesus Christ who bridged this divide for us. God’s love is steadfast, and his desire for closeness remains unwavering. He always invites separated sinners to turn back toward him.

On this journey of divine hiddenness and the existence of God, we should feel called to examine our hearts and how we might be contributing to this separation. Remember, God wants us to return to him and seek him. When we do, he comes running to meet us as in Jesus’s parable of the lost son in Luke 15:11.

By acknowledging the choices we’ve made and what’s in our hearts, we open ourselves to the possibility of healing and restoration. Knowing that we’ve been forgiven of all our sins allows us to feel God’s presence as a loving father rather than a judge.

God’s Hiddenness

While the idea of God’s hiddenness can sometimes be overwhelming, it’s important to remember that God is much closer to us than we might think or feel. Even when it doesn’t seem like it, God is always a part of our lives. He works quietly in all the details of our lives and invites us to know him more and see his unfailing provision.

Romans 8:28 reminds us, even through the hardships and the silence:

We know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

One of the most comforting truths for any of us is that God continually seeks to restore his relationship with humanity. Through Christ’s sacrificial death, this restoration took on a physical, visible, and tangible form. Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection are profound demonstrations of God’s desire to bridge the gap that sin has created. Jesus’s atoning death forever changed history. By believing in and receiving Christ, we are given the way back to a close relationship with God.

Scripture, too, serves as a vital conduit for experiencing God’s presence. The Bible is more than a historical book; it’s a living text through which God speaks to us. In its pages, we find guidance, comfort, and the reassurance that God plays an active role in our lives. As we read Scripture, we start to see his fingerprints in our experiences, our hearts, and the world around us.

Adding to this comfort, creation itself has a way of showing how close God is to us. The beauty and complexity of the natural world remind us of a Creator who is powerful and caring. From the details of a snowflake to the miracle of photosynthesis to the mystery of animal instincts, the creation we see every day reflects the presence of God. This revelation peels back another layer against the argument of divine hiddenness.

Even when we can’t feel it, God’s hiddenness is not a sign of his absence. Instead, it serves as an invitation to seek him with expectant faith and trust. By knowing how he shows himself—through Christ, the Bible, and creation—we can understand why he seems hidden when in fact his presence is strong and always pulling us closer to him.

A God Who Exists and Reveals

As we think about the case for God’s divine hiddenness, it’s important to recognize and acknowledge that God does exist and has shown himself in many meaningful ways.

Christian thinkers affirm that Scripture is backed by historical accounts and archaeological evidence. Its reliability is a roadmap to the divine and one of the primary ways God reveals himself today. Through the Bible, we learn about his attributes, plans, and promises. Scripture serves as a guide to help us understand God’s heart and how to grow our faith. As we read and think about the Bible, we become part of a story that connects us with God.

Nature, too, is a testament to God’s handiwork. The beauty of the world around us—from the majesty of mountains to the delicate complexity of a single flower and the animals that interact with them—reflects the creativity and intent of a Creator who delights in his creation. But we must be willing to see it. When we pause to appreciate the natural world, we can “see” a part of God.

Our conscience serves as another way through which God communicates and reveals himself. The inner sense of right and wrong and the gentle nudges that guide our choices are a God-given moral compass. This inner voice helps us follow his will and encourages us to live according to his principles.

Personal experiences are perhaps the most intimate way God shows himself to us. In times of happiness, sorrow, challenges, or triumphs, we encounter his presence in ways that are hard to explain. These moments require faith, as they may not always present themselves in dramatic or obvious ways. Instead, they might appear as a quiet assurance, a comforting peace, or a helpful word that hits home at just the right time.

God’s hiddenness doesn’t mean he’s not there. Instead, it encourages us to seek him with faith and an open heart. By paying attention to how he quietly shows himself—through the Bible, nature, our conscience, and personal experiences—we can build a relationship that goes beyond the need for evidence of his existence.

Christian Response to Divine Hiddenness

In our exploration of divine hiddenness, it’s essential to consider how we, as Christians, are called to respond. Faith, hope, and love lie at the heart of this response. They form key parts of a relationship with God that’s built not on obligation or force, but on genuine connection. God’s hiddenness is not a wall that keeps us away but is a call to seek him with a sincere heart.

As Proverbs 3:5 reminds us:

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.

Faith That Grows Relationship with God

Faith plays a crucial role. By faith we believe in God’s presence and goodness even when he seems far away. This kind of faith goes beyond seeing to having confidence in the unseen. It encourages us to embrace the mystery and find comfort in knowing that God is working all things for good, even when we don’t have all the answers.

Trusting in God’s Existence & God’s Love

Trust, too, is vital. It means having confidence in God’s character and promises. It’s believing that he wants what’s best for us and that his plans, though sometimes hidden, are good for us in the end. This hopeful trust helps us build a stronger relationship, knowing that God is always faithful and ever-present.

Pursuing Personal Relationship with Our Perfectly Loving God

By seeking God out of the sincerity of the heart rather than out of obligation that would come from overwhelming evidence (divine obviousness), our relationship becomes dynamic and transformative. His hiddenness is not a test but an opportunity to deepen our faith. It allows and inspires us to pursue God with an open heart. This pursuit pushes us to grow and prompts us to rely on what we’ve been given and not strictly on external proof.

As we finish our exploration of divine hiddenness, let’s think about how this idea can help us grow spiritually and build a closer relationship with God. The mysterious nature of God’s presence invites us into a journey of discovery, where our faith is stretched and our trust solidified. This journey isn’t just about finding answers but about enjoying the process and the route life takes us.

Trust acts as an anchor in situations of uncertainty, as in the idea of God’s hiddenness. Although God’s presence may not always be obvious, Christians believe that he shows himself in his perfect timing. This trust encourages Christians and those who want to believe to remain patient and hopeful, confident that God’s wisdom guides his interactions with us to shape our paths in ways we might not understand right away.

Personal experiences with God, whether during times of deep thought, peaceful moments, or tragedy, help strengthen our connection with him. These experiences may be subtle or overwhelming, but they all help us grow closer to God. By being open to learning from these moments, we can develop a heart that recognizes his presence.

In conclusion, divine hiddenness isn’t a barrier. It’s an invitation to grow. It encourages us to trust God’s wisdom and timing, to seek him sincerely, and to accept the mystery of life’s journey of faith as part of the human experience.

When we change how we think about the idea of why God seems hidden or doesn’t clearly show himself, we deepen our relationship with God. We then find comfort in his hidden but always present support.

Be encouraged! May God strengthen your faith, and may he draw you closer to himself, especially when he seems hidden. Take comfort in the fact that God always reveals himself to those who truly seek him.

The post Divine Hiddenness and the Existence of God appeared first on Reasons to Believe.

Oxygen and Carbon Dioxide History Affirms Divine Creation

Hugh Ross — Mon, 18 Apr 2022 12:00:00 +0000

Scientific advance continues to reveal details of God’s involvement in the history of Earth’s early life. Research shows that at the just-right times, Earth has received the just-right amounts of atmospheric oxygen necessary for new life-forms.

Earth’s atmosphere has undergone long periods of oxygenation. This oxygenation history dramatically impacts Earth’s life. Some microbial species can flourish without any atmospheric oxygen at all. Many other microbial species can exist and thrive at atmospheric oxygen levels below 1%. A few animal species with individual body sizes below 1 millimeter can survive at atmospheric oxygen levels of only a few percent. However, animals with individual body sizes greater than a few centimeters require atmospheric oxygen levels of at least 8%.

Previous Attempts to Determine Atmospheric Oxygen History
Geochemists have determined the past history of Earth’s atmospheric oxygen level through measurements of isotope ratios and the abundances of certain isotopes. These isotope ratios and isotope abundances serve as proxies (substitutes) for the level of oxygen in the atmosphere. Figure 1 shows Earth’s atmospheric oxygen level throughout Earth’s history determined from these proxies.

Figure 1: Previous Best Measure of Atmospheric Oxygen Levels throughout Earth’s History
Diagram credit: Hugh Ross

Cerium as a Proxy for Oxygen
The dotted line in figure 1 indicates that part of Earth’s history where geochemists lacked good, undisputed proxies. The best proxies they had were measurements of cerium abundance levels and chromium isotopes. Cerium is preferentially scavenged from seawater under high atmospheric oxygen levels.¹ However, cerium oxidation kinetics are poorly constrained and the oxidative pathway has been hotly debated.² Consequently, based on cerium abundances, atmospheric oxygen level estimates from 2.5–4.0 billion years after Earth’s formation range from 0.02–0.2%.³

Chromium as a Proxy for Oxygen
Oxidative weathering of continental landmasses delivers fractionated chromium to seawater. Therefore, the chromium isotope ratios in marine sediments yield a measure of the oxygen level in the atmosphere. Based on chromium isotopes in two studies, atmospheric oxygen levels from 2.5–4.0 billion years after Earth’s formation yielded values of 0.02–0.2%.⁴ Two other studies produced values of 0.2–2.0%.⁵

These disparate values explain why scientists have engaged in such wide-ranging speculations about life during this period. Some have speculated that there may have been brief episodes in the 2.5–4.0-billion-year range of Earth’s age where the atmospheric oxygen level may have been much higher than 2%. In such cases, perhaps plants and animals with body sizes larger than a centimeter may have appeared. Such speculations have caused some evolutionary biologists to conclude that the Avalon (about 575 million years ago) and Cambrian (about 541 million years ago) explosions of life may not have been so explosive. If that is the case, then perhaps God is not as involved in the history of life on Earth as many theists think and claim.

New Measurement of Earth’s Oxygenation History
An international team of a dozen geophysicists and geochemists led by Changle Wang developed a new proxy for determining the atmospheric oxygen level.⁶ That proxy is the iron isotope ratios in iron-rich sedimentary rocks deposited on continental shelves. The team discovered that regardless of the source of iron-II, partial iron-II oxidation in such rocks requires low oxygen levels in shallow marine waters. In turn, low oxygen levels in shallow marine waters are linked to low atmospheric oxygen levels.

Iron isotope ratios proved to be a powerful, reliable proxy for atmospheric oxygen levels mainly because iron is ubiquitous and abundant in marine sedimentary rocks. Therefore, for the first time scientists possess an accurate and complete record of Earth’s atmospheric oxygen levels from 2.5–4.0 billion years after Earth’s birth (2.1–0.6 billion years ago). No longer is it a dotted line in the graph (see figure 2).

Figure 2: New Measure of Atmospheric Oxygen Levels throughout Earth’s History
Diagram credit: Hugh Ross

Wang’s team established that from 2.1–0.9 billion years ago, Earth’s atmospheric oxygen level remained below 0.2%. Somewhere between 900 and 750 million years ago the atmospheric oxygen level slowly began to rise above 0.2%.

The most recent measurement made by Wang’s team revealed levels from 750 million years ago. The atmospheric oxygen level at that time was about 1%. This level is consistent with the first appearance of eukaryotic predation—tiny primitive animals that feed on other even tinier animals that require a minimum atmospheric oxygen level of 1%. Not until the Avalon explosion at 575 million years ago do scientists see animals in the fossil record that require significantly more atmospheric oxygen.

Earth’s Carbon Dioxide History
Animals also require low atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. High atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations produce acidosis (low pH) in oceans, lakes, and rivers and in aquatic animal tissues and body fluids. Acidosis is damaging to the long-term health of all aquatic animals and the short-term health of aquatic animals with high metabolic rates.⁷ For air-breathing animals, elevated carbon dioxide levels disrupt respiration and autoregulation of blood supply, which brings on cognitive and respiratory failure and circulatory arrest.⁸

It took three slushball events (ice ages where more than half of Earth’s surface is covered with thick ice) to bring the atmospheric carbon dioxide level down to where large-bodied animals could survive.⁹ These three events were the Sturtian (715–680 million years ago), Marinoan (650–635 million years ago), and Gaskiers (579.9–579.6 million years ago) glaciations. Shortly after the Gaskiers glaciation, Earth’s atmospheric carbon dioxide level finally decreased to a level where large-bodied animals could possibly exist. The first Avalon explosion 575 million years ago marks the first appearance of large-bodied animals.

Philosophical/Theological Implications
The research achievements by Wang’s team close the door on speculations about Earth’s past atmospheric oxygen levels. The last words in their paper are “Surface O₂ levels were changing in step with eukaryotic evolution in the Proterozoic.”¹⁰ In other words, the moment that the atmospheric oxygen level rose to a level permitting the existence of animals requiring at least that level of atmospheric oxygen, at that same moment those animals appeared. There was no drawn-out evolutionary process. The animals appeared as soon as oxygen conditions permitted their existence.

All naturalistic processes (natural selection, mutations, gene exchange, epigenetics) for driving the evolution of life require long time periods to produce any significant changes. However, the fossil record—in combination with the history of Earth’s atmospheric oxygen levels established by Wang’s team—demonstrates that the time periods are extremely brief, indistinguishable from instantaneous. The immediacy with which oxygen-demanding animals appear when atmospheric oxygen levels attain the minimum levels necessary for their survival supports the argument that a supernatural, superintelligent Creator authored such life, as described in Psalm 104.

Endnotes

Michael Bau and Andrea Koschinsky, “Oxidative Scavenging of Cerium on Hydrous Fe Oxide: Evidence from the Distribution of Rare Earth Elements and Yttrium between Fe Oxides and Mn Oxides in Hydrogenetic Ferromanganese Crusts,” Geochemical Journal 43, no. 1 (2009): 37–47, doi:10.2343/geochemj.1.0005.
Bau and Koschinsky, “Oxidative Scavenging of Cerium”; James W. Moflett, “The Relationship between Cerium and Manganese Oxidation in the Marine Environment,” Limnology and Oceanography 39, no. 6 (September 1994): 1309–18, doi:10.4319/lo.1994.39.6.1309.
Eric J. Bellefroid et al., “Constraints on Paleoproterozoic Atmospheric Oxygen Levels,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 115, no. 32 (July 23, 2018): 8104–9, doi:10.1073/pnas.1806216115; Xiao-Ming Liu et al., “A Persistently Low Level of Atmospheric Oxygen in Earth’s Middle Age,” Nature Communications 12 (January 13, 2021): id. 351, doi:10.1038/s41467-020-20484-7.
Noah J. Planavsky et al., “Low Mid-Proterozoic Atmospheric Oxygen Levels and the Delayed Rise of Animals,” Science 346, no. 6209 (October 31, 2014): 635–8, doi:10.1126/science.1258410; Devon B. Cole et al., “A Shale-Hosted Cr Isotope Record of Low Atmospheric Oxygen during the Proterozoic,” Geology 44, no. 7 (July 1, 2016): 555–8, doi:10.1130/G37787.1.
Donald E. Canfield et al., “Highly Fractionated Chromium Isotopes in Mesoproterozoic-Aged Shales and Atmospheric Oxygen,” Nature Communications 9 (July 20, 2018): id. 2871, doi:10.1038/s41467-018-05263-9; G. J. Gilleaudeau et al., “Oxygenation of the Mid-Proterozoic Atmosphere: Clues from Chromium Isotopes in Carbonates,” Geochemistry Perspectives Letters 2, no. 2 (May 24, 2016): 178–87, doi:10.7185/geochemlet.1618.
Changle Wang et al., “Strong Evidence for a Weakly Oxygenated Ocean-Atmosphere System during the Proterozoic,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 119, no. 6 (January 31, 2022): id. e2116101119, doi:10.1073/pnas.2116101119.
Hans O. Pörtner, Martina Langenbuch, and Anke Reipschläger, “Biological Impact of Elevated Ocean CO₂ Concentrations: Lessons from Animal Physiology and Earth History,” Journal of Oceanography 60, no. 4 (August 1, 2004): 705–18, doi:10.1007/s10872-004-5763-0.
Zaher S. Azzam et al., “The Physiological and Molecular Effects of Elevated CO₂ Levels,” Cell Cycle 9, no. 8 (April 20, 2010): 1528–32, doi:10.4161/cc.9.8.11196; Kris Permentier et al., “Carbon Dioxide Poisoning: A Literature Review of an Often Forgotten Cause of Intoxication in the Emergency Department,” International Journal of Emergency Medicine 10 (April 4, 2017): id. 14, p. 1, doi:10.1186/s12245-017-0142-y.
Stephan V. Sobolev and Michael Brown, “Surface Erosion Events Controlled the Evolution of Plate Tectonics on Earth,” Nature 570 (June 5, 2019): 52–57, doi:10.1038/s41586-019-1258-4; Hugh Ross, “Why Do We Need Snowball Events?” Today’s New Reason to Believe (blog), Reasons to Believe, August 5, 2019.
Wang et al., “Strong Evidence,” p. 6.

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Does the Multiverse Explain Away Divine Design?

Hugh Ross — Fri, 23 Apr 2021 12:00:00 +0000

Question of the week: Can you give a brief response to atheists’ appeals to the multiverse to explain away divine design?

My answer: Very briefly, the same multiverse logic used by atheists to explain away divine design simultaneously explains away all human design achievements. Hence, the atheists’ appeal to the multiverse to avoid divine design is philosophically inconsistent.

Here is a not-so-brief illustration of my point:
In an infinite number of universes, where all conceivable variations on the features of the universes are manifested, there could be an infinite number of planets just like Earth. On those infinite number of Earth-like planets, there could be an infinite number of trees that shed pieces of white bark that are indistinguishable from 8.5 x 11-inch sheets of paper. This infinite number of pieces of white bark could fall upon soil containing chemicals that would imprint random ink-like markings on the pieces of bark. With an infinite number of pieces of such bark falling upon such soil, inevitably there will be a set of those pieces of bark that will possess imprinted markings that look identical to all the research papers published by all the nontheistic research scientists in the world. One, therefore, could presume that none of those research papers came from the minds of scientists. A mindless multiverse did it!

It is important to add that all multiverse speculations require a Creator to explain the existence of a multiverse. All multiverse models are speculative in that it is impossible for us to measure or physically detect anything beyond our universe. All multiverse speculations are subject to the space-time theorems.

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How Divine Simplicity Comforts the Soul, Part 2

Guest Writer — Fri, 30 Nov 2018 01:37:00 +0000

Bilbo Baggins once said, “But today, of all days, it is brought home to me, it is no bad thing to celebrate a simple life.”¹ It’s not bad at all. And when it comes to God’s simplicity, it’s all good for us. In part one, we described the doctrine of simplicity and offered a biblical argument in its favor. Here in part two we will offer two more arguments for simplicity and then show why the doctrine is practical.

Theological Argument for Simplicity

Theologically speaking, a denial of divine simplicity would seem to mitigate, if not altogether destroy, divine sovereignty. Imagine that goodness is something God has rather than something God is. If that were the case, then goodness would be an independently existing abstract property that God (a) has no real control over, and (b) must conform himself to if he is to manifest the property. Indeed, if all the properties of God were separable from his essence (to which he must conform his life), then God himself would be swimming in a sea of abstractions over which he has no control. And this, of course, destroys divine sovereignty.

As the Nicene Creed states, God is the Creator of all things, visible and invisible. This means that God created everything that is not himself, whether it be a visible entity (like a planet) or an invisible one (like an angelic spirit). If goodness is created, then God himself is not necessarily good, but is simply the cause of good. This has disturbing consequences. For example, it would mean that God may be (or choose to be) evil, which is obviously antibiblical (cf. Psalm 89:14; 1 John 1:5). Also, if God created all of his properties, then it would mean humans could never know him, only his creation. That position is also antibiblical, since Scripture says we can know God himself (John 17:3; 2 Corinthians 10:5). Furthermore, this view is incoherent; for if God created all of his properties, then he would have possessed the power to make things before making the property of power!

If goodness is uncreated, then it must inhere in the essence of God, since the Nicene Creed says that whatever is not God is created. Goodness cannot inhere in the divine essence in such a way that it can be abstracted from God’s nature. Rather, God is his own goodness. And this just is the essence of the doctrine of simplicity.

Philosophical Argument for Simplicity

Philosophically speaking, the following argument establishes both God’s being and his simplicity:

Whatever admits of composition is caused by another.
The universe, and all that is in it, admits of composition.
Therefore, the universe is caused by another.

Premise (a) is established through experience; in fact, anything humans encounter that admits of composition is caused by another. A pile of rocks in the middle of the woods, for example, admits of composition. There must be a cause, or series of causes, to explain the current existence of this pile. Maybe a construction company put the rocks there because someone wants to develop the area. Maybe the forces of nature, over eons of time, slowly but surely moved each rock into its place. Something or someone (or some combination of both) brought about this state of affairs. Anything in human experience is the same. A composition of some sort—a table, a tree, a car, a human body—must have a cause(s) to explain it.

Premise (b) is also vindicated via experience and observation; for clearly the universe is made up of many different things—comets, planets, stars, galaxies, etc. Hence, it admits of composition. But since whatever is composed is caused, the universe must be caused.

Most people at this point will concede that there must be a God who causes the world to be. But others raise another question; namely, “What causes God to be?” The answer, of course, is that nothing causes God to be since he is uncomposed. He is not a composition of arms and legs (like us humans), since he is pure Spirit. He is not a composition of actuality and potentiality, since he is pure act. He is not a composition of essence and existence, since he is his own act of existing (i.e., his essence is to exist). God is not an effect, since he is uncaused. If God had his power, he could lose it via the force of some cause. But he doesn’t have power; he is power. The same can be said of the divine knowledge, eternity, presence, etc. God is what he “has,” and so he is “simple” in every way.

God’s Simplicity and Our Comfort

As a balm of comfort to the soul, believers can appreciate the fact that there is no security without simplicity. Indeed, it is precisely because God is life that he can never lose it. And since he is eternal life, his children are eternally secure in him (John 10:25–30). To put it another way, we know that God will never lose us since he is the one who gives us eternal life (John 10:10; 11:25,). If God were not his own act of living, then life would be something he could lose and, thus, the promise of eternal life would be uncertain. How can Christians firmly trust a God who receives life from another? They can’t! Hence, if you or I feel secure in Christ it is only because deep down, we know that God is simple!

God is not merely comforting; his essence serves as the paradigm of life. This means believers should model their lives after the divine attributes. Obviously we cannot be like God, since he is infinitely removed from us metaphysically. However, God does allow us to share in his nature in a limited way. For example, we are to be morally pure, just as he is (cf. Leviticus 19:2; Matthew 5:48; 2 Peter 1:4).

None of this is to say, of course, that humans can be simple in the same way God is—for again, he is infinite and we are finite. That said, as creatures who bear the divine image, we should still model our lives after God’s simplicity.

How long shall we complicate our lives with drama, debt, and diversions? The divine life is rich and beautiful; and God is beautiful precisely because he is simple. The challenge to each of us is to reflect on this doctrine and then begin to rid ourselves of the clutter that keeps us from enjoying fellowship with him and with those we love.²

Endnotes

This quotation cannot be found in J. R. R. Tolkien’s books, but appears in the Extended Edition (2002) DVD of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.
For more on simplicity, see Norman L. Geisler, Systematic Theology, Vol. 2, God and Creation (Minneapolis, MN: Bethany, 2003), 39–57; Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica Ia.3.1–8, trans. the Fathers of the English Dominican Province (New York: Benzinger Bros., 1948).; and Richard Muller, Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics (The Rise and Development of Reformed Orthodoxy, ca. 1520 to ca. 1725):The Divine Essence and Attributes, Vol. 3 (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 2003), 38–44.

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How Divine Simplicity Comforts the Soul, Part 1

Guest Writer — Tue, 27 Nov 2018 00:12:00 +0000

Many people are aware of the adage that the most important thing about a person is what he or she thinks of God, for it is upon such thoughts that one’s life will turn. And, while Reasons to Believe (RTB) has repeatedly explored the pragmatic nature of God’s existence throughout its thirty-plus years of ministry, little has been written on the practical application of the attributes of God in a person’s life. To fill that hole, I invite you to reflect with me on the all-important doctrine of divine simplicity. Our brief study is divided into two parts. Here in part one, we will expound upon the doctrine of simplicity and offer biblical support in its favor. In part two, we will offer two more arguments for simplicity and then look at a few practical applications of the doctrine.

What Is Divine Simplicity?

The doctrine of divine simplicity is not the belief that God is easy to understand. Nor is it the exhortation for Christians to follow the KISS (“keep it simple, stupid”) principle. Nor is it the insight that God often speaks in simple terms throughout Scripture. Rather, the doctrine of divine simplicity is the firm belief, held by the vast majority of Christian theologians through the ages (though it is hotly debated among Christians today), that God is not composed of parts (as in Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) or passions or even physical features. God is pure spirit (John 4:24), and thus has no physical parts.

God is never tossed to and fro by the triumphs and tragedies in creation; so he has no passions. It is even improper to say that God has anything—rather, he literally is whatever he “has.” God does not have power, he is power. God does not have knowledge, he is knowledge. God does not have goodness, he is the good. And it is not as though God’s goodness is located in the Milky Way Galaxy, while his power is over at the Andromeda Galaxy. No, the power, knowledge, goodness, and eternity of God (and more besides) subsist within his essence wholly, solely, and in such a unified manner that God is not only a unity of number (he is the only God there is), but he is a unity of simplicity: God is knowledgably powerful, morally perfect in his knowledge, and powerfully good. There is, then, no real distinction between God’s essence (what God is) and existence (that God is). The reason theologians speak of his power, knowledge, and goodness as distinct properties is due to human finitude. In reality, God is absolutely one in his essence.

Biblical Arguments for Simplicity

Christian thinkers have traditionally marshaled three kinds of arguments in favor of the divine simplicity: biblical, theological, and philosophical (we’ll explore the last two in part two of this series). Biblically, it seems contrary to the intent of the Scriptures to say that the attributes of God are parts of him.

Some people might benefit from the pincushion analogy where God’s attributes are sometimes compared to a cushion and the various pins sticking in it. Each pin represents a property or attribute of God, whose essence is represented by the cushion. So conceived, it would mean that a part of God can be abstracted from who he is. For example, just as it is possible to pull a pin from its cushion without destroying either the pin or the nature of the cushion, it is possible mentally, if not actually, to abstract God’s knowledge from his essence in such a way that God can still be God and have no knowledge.

Biblically speaking, this seems counterintuitive. For example, speaking of the Gentile world, the apostle Paul says they have “exchanged the glory of the incorruptible¹ God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures” (Romans 1:23, NASB). This means that it is impossible to corrupt God’s nature by any outside physical or spiritual force. It seems consistent with the spirit (if not the letter) of this passage to insist that God cannot be corrupted by anything—whether it be an outside physical force or even God himself mentally abstracting his knowledge from his goodness. Nineteenth-century theologian Robert Dabney said that “We must repudiate the gross idea that they [i.e., the divine attributes] are parts of his substance, or members attached to it; for then he would be susceptible of division, and so of destruction.”²

Scripture says God literally is every one of his attributes: God is holy (Leviticus 19:2), God is truth (John 14:6), God is light (1 John 1:5), God is life (John 1:4; 14:6), God is the logic or the word (John 1:1), God is love (1 John 4:16), God is his act of existing (“I am that I am”–– Exodus 3:14). These passages all seem to indicate that God does not have anything, but literally is whatever he “has.”

Thus, Christians have at least some biblical reasons to think the doctrine of divine simplicity is true. In the next post, we will discuss two more arguments for the doctrine, and then explore a few practical applications of this wonderful, soul-comforting truth.

Endnotes

While some translations, like the ESV, differ from the NASB here—e.g., by translating the Greek word aphthartou as “immortal” instead of “incorruptible,” the evidence favors the NASB translation of this text (or a translation similar to it—e.g., “imperishable”). Indeed, this is the same word Peter uses when he says, “. . . since you have been born again, not of perishable [phthartes] seed but of imperishable [aphthartou], through the living and abiding word of God” (1 Peter 1:23 ESV; cf. NASB).
Robert L. Dabney, Systematic Theology, 2nd ed., rev. ed. (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust, 1878), 147.

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Health Impact of Solar Cycle Indicates Divine Design

Hugh Ross — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 08:00:00 +0000

For thousands of years medical practitioners have speculated that human health may be impacted in some way by astronomical cycles, perhaps by lunar phases. Decades of research failed to show any correlation—at least not with the Moon. However, it now appears that a correlation does exist between health and the Sun.

A recent paper reports on the assessment of voluminous data from two long-term studies. In that data researchers found a small but noticeable connection between human vitality and the sunspot cycle (see figure 1).¹ The first of the two data sets included results of nearly 1.2 million consecutive, serially independent Pap smears (taken for screening purposes) from Dutch women between January 1983 and December 2003. The researchers looked for any changes in the markers for infectious, premalignant, and malignant tissue.

The second data set represents the dedication of one healthy biomedical scientist. During the same time period when the Dutch were gathering Pap smear results, this man made and recorded five measurements per day of his body temperature, pulse rate, blood pressure, respiration rate, and lung capacity.

In the records of the Dutch women, researches noted a slightly deleterious change in the cervical cells a few months after each “solar maximum” (see figure 1).

Credit: Robert A. Rohde/Global Warming Art

Figure 1: Solar Flare and Sunspot Variations During Recent Solar Cycles
The vertical scales for irradiance, solar flaring activity, sunspots, and radio flux have been adjusted and overlaid to permit plotting on the same vertical axis.

The healthy biomedical scientist noted slight elevations in his temperature, pulse rate, blood pressure, and respiration rate, plus a minor decrease in his maximum expiratory flow at approximately the same time as the Pap smear changes.

In each case the impact was only slightly deleterious, and to detect it required meticulous, accurate, and comprehensive medical measurements. Just to notice a pattern in their frequency—a pattern that correlates with the sunspot cycle—proved difficult.

From a creation perspective, the researchers’ findings may help explain, in part, the Creator’s timing. As figure 2 illustrates, if we humans had arrived any earlier (or later) in Earth’s history, we would have been exposed to a greater flow of harmful radiation due to greater solar flaring activity. In the present era, humanity faces a minimal, barely discernible health risk, while at any other time those risks would be significantly greater.

Figure 2: Flaring Activity Levels Throughout the Sun’s History
Background image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech. Note that minimum flaring activity occurs halfway through the sun’s hydrogen-fusion burning phase.

The correlation of human health with the sunspot cycle supports the notion that the timing of Adam and Eve’s arrival upon the terrestrial scene was no evolutionary accident. It appears the One who controls the past, present, and future guided the just-right star and shaped a just-right planet for orbit around that star at the just-right distance with the just-right atmosphere at the just-right moment to provide a safe home for humanity.

An expanded version of this article is available here.

Endnotes

William J. M. Hrushesky et al., “Sunspot Dynamics Are Reflected in Human Physiology and Pathophysiology,” Astrobiology 11 (March 2011): 93–103.

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Stress as an Indicator of Divine Design

Hugh Ross — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 10:00:00 +0000

In an ad for the Heart Institute that bears his name, Tommy Lasorda, former manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers, says, “I don’t get heart attacks; I give them.” As manager of a Major League Baseball team, he did what he could to stress the hearts of competing managers. He also realized it was important for him to
stress his own athletes to some degree so that they could become better athletes. And by making his players better, he reasoned, he would cause even greater stress and anxiety for competing managers.

Too much stress can cause serious damage, even death. Yet Lasorda spoke of something that ecologists and chemists have only recently learned to appreciate more fully. Every life-form needs some level of stress, but for maximum benefit the stress must be carefully fine-tuned. In the 1880s, a German pharmacologist first noted that tiny doses of disinfectants (stressors) stimulated the growth of yeast. Ignoring his notations about the detrimental effects of high dosages, some homeopathic practitioners went wild. They began over prescribing stressors, such as heavy metal tablets or liquids and skin irritants, touting their supposed benefits. This practice, which to some extent continues even today, resulted in a serious loss of credibility for those investigating and advocating the potential benefits of stress. Not until the last few years, when scientists began to measure accurately the nonlinear pattern of organisms’ response to stressors, did the discipline of hormesis—the study of the benefits (and detriments) of varying degrees and kinds of measurable stress—regain momentum among scientists.

Over the past few years, hormeticians have uncovered increasing evidence that certain stress-inducing substances and conditions available in Earth’s environment can and do produce a variety of beneficial responses—if available at appropriate levels.¹

These same substances and conditions prove toxic at higher levels, and the toxicity typically rises exponentially with increased exposure levels. At some point, these stressors can prove lethal.

Hormeticians have also found that for many species of life, stressors yield benefits twice, both at the time of initial exposure and also later in life, sometimes much later. In almost all cases, the stressors produce increased fitness for survival. The particular fitness benefits include enhanced acclimation to conditions in the organism’s environment and what hormeticians term plasticity—the ability to adapt to a wider range of environmental conditions.

An example of acclimation is what happens to mountain climbers as they gradually ascend from altitudes of 10,000 to 26,000 feet. The stress of decreasing oxygen availability in the atmosphere stimulates the body to increase the density of red blood cells in the blood stream. This increased density delivers oxygen more efficiently to the climbers’ muscles. An example of plasticity may be seen in the development of the human immune response system. The stress of exposure to viruses, bacteria, dust, and a wide range of foods in a person’s early years can result in greater resistance to allergies and asthmatic reactions.

To date hormeticians have identified over a thousand different chemical and environmental stressors that yield one or more advantages to one or more species of life. Species for which scientists have found proven benefits from stressors include plants, bacteria, fungi, insects, fish, birds, and mammals, including humans.²

The stressors fall into four broad categories:

1. Naturally occurring (potentially toxic) elements and compounds

2. Naturally existing (potentially lethal) environmental conditions, including radiation and pollution

3. Various organisms and viruses

4. Physical activities that temporarily deprive, strain, or damage

The benefits of these stressors fall into six broad categories:

1. Enhanced longevity

2. Enhanced growth or biomass

3. Enhanced reproduction

4. Enhanced antioxidant defenses

5. Enhanced immunity or health

6. Greater strength or endurance

For many species, including humans, the benefit that an individual gains from a particular stressor is highly dependent on when, during development, exposure to the stressor occurs. Typically, the greatest benefit derives from exposure during the earlier stages of the developmental process. Occasionally, the benefit is gender dependent, as was recently demonstrated among fruit flies.³

The finding that exposure to a stressor during early development can bring about lifelong benefits led researchers to explore possible links between the stressors and the functions of certain genes. These researchers found that in many cases the stressors changed the expression of genes underlying certain physiological response pathways.⁴ For example, stressors impacted gene expression governing hormone response, heatshock proteins, and antioxidant enzymes.

The ongoing study of hormesis brings into focus four distinct manifestations of fine-tuning for life,
human life in particular:

1. Earth’s surface and crust contain an abundance and diversity of stressors that impact widely diverse species, ultimately benefiting (with appropriate level and timing of exposure) the entire range of species.

2. These stressors have remained at high enough levels and for long enough to benefit the greatest number of species, including advanced animals and human beings.

3. These stressors remain at low enough levels to cause minimum damage to Earth’s life-forms—minimum in the context of the existing laws of physics.

4. The DNA structure of Earth’s life-forms allows genes to respond to stressors in beneficial ways.

In each of these four areas lies the opportunity for hormeticians to discover and measure evidence for design—its extent, complexity, and interconnectedness. Hormesis may also contribute to resolving the debate over which influence—genetics or environment—primarily determines behavior. Hormeticians can confirm our intuition that behavior emanates from a complex and still only vaguely understood interdependence between the two. Ongoing research may well provide scientific confirmation for what the Bible says about morals and ethics. Already it adds weight to the case for divine design.

Figure 1: A Little Bit of Stress Makes for Healthier Mice
Experiments done on laboratory mice demonstrate that exposure to certain kinds and levels of stress during early development can produce healthier adults with longer life spans.

Endnotes

David Constantini, Neil B. Metcalfe, and Pat Monaghan, “Ecological Processes in a Hormetic Framework,” Ecology Letters 13 (November 2010): 1435–47.
Edward J. Calabrese and Robyn Blain, “The Occurrence of Hormetic Dose Responses in the Toxicological Literature, the Hormesis Database: an Overview,” Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology 202, no. 3 (February 1, 2005): 289–301.
Éric Le Bourg, Étienne Toffin, and Antoine Massé, “Male Drosophila melanogaster Flies Exposed to Hypergravity at Young Age Are Protected Against a Non-Lethal Heat Shock at Middle Age But Not Against Behavioral Impairments Due to this Shock,” Biogerontology 5, no. 6 (November 2004): 431–43.
Calabrese and Blain, 289–301; Alexander M. Vaiserman, “Hormesis, Adaptive Epigenetic Reorganization, and Implications for Human Health and Longevity,” Dose-Response 8, no. 1 (2010): 16–21; Suresh I. S. Rattan, “Hormesis in Aging,” Ageing Research Reviews 7, no. 1 (January 2008): 63–78.

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Elemental Evidence of Earth’s Divine Design

Hugh Ross — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 10:00:00 +0000

The familiar adage “You can’t have too much of a good thing” doesn’t hold true for planet Earth.

Too much water, for example, or too much carbon would destroy Earth’s ability to support advanced life. On the other hand, too little of certain “bad” things, elements generally considered poisonous to life, would also ruin Earth’s chances to serve as a life site. Many of these elements must be present on Earth in “just right” quantities or we wouldn’t be here.

When Carl Sagan and others first claimed that among the billions and billions of stars in the universe we’d be sure to find millions (or more) of life sites, they gave the impression that our home is just an ordinary, not-really-unusual planet. The past few decades of research, however, have shown us just the opposite: in its array and abundances of various elements and compounds, Earth is, in fact, extraordinary. Given its size and distance from the Sun, Earth holds an unusual and unexpected quantity of virtually every element and compound researchers can measure and compare—and especially in the case of elements and compounds vital to the existence of advanced life.

Figure 1: Cosmic Abundance history of Uranium and Thorium
Supernovae deliver uranium and thorium to the interstellar medium. However, the supernovae eruption rate declines as the universe ages. Eventually the delivery rate fails to keep pace with radiometric decay. For Earth to receive a maximal amount of uranium and t horium it must form when the cosmic abundance of those elements reaches a peak. (Credit for background image of the galaxy NGC 6217: NASA/ESA/Hubble SM4 ERO Team)

Astronomers have begun to gain some understanding as to how Earth came to be so different. It starts with the timing of the solar system’s origin. For example, as I often mention in my talks, our solar system formed at that moment in cosmic history when uranium and thorium reached their peak abundance (see Figure 1). Since that time, their production through supernova eruptions (the only cosmic source of uranium and thorium) has failed to keep pace with their radioactive decay. So their availability for incorporation into newly forming planets has decreased. The significance of this timing is that uranium and thorium are essential elements for driving Earth’s plate tectonics. Thanks to the timing of Earth’s formation and a number of subsequent events in the Sun’s and Earth’s early history (which will be described below), Earth was supplied with enough uranium and thorium to sustain strong, and enduring plate tectonics, which in turn provide for a just-right balance of oceans and continents—critical surface features for the recycling of nutrients and the existence of advanced life (see Figure 2).

Figure 2: Growth of Continents on Earth’s Surface:
The Vertical axis shows the percentage of Earth’s surface area comprised of continents. As the graph indicates, landmasses grew rapidly around the 2-billion-year mark and have increased gradually since then. The Current coverage of Earth’s surface by continents is ideal for the efficient recycling of nutrients and for the support of global human civilization. (Credit for background image of Earth: NASA)

The solar system formed not only with the best possible timing but also, simultaneously, in the best possible location for the sake of humanity. Both time and place influence the relative quantities of particular metal isotopes in early Earth’s composition. As British planetary astronomers Jamie Gilmour and Ceri Middleton noted, the exceptionally high ratio of aluminum-26 to aluminum-27 (4.5-5 x 10⁵) at the solar system’s origin site is “difficult to produce in models of star formation.”¹ In other words, it’s highly unusual and unexpected.

Four astronomers at the Universities of Hawaii and Colorado determined how the primordial solar system became so exceptionally enriched with aluminum-26.² A prior generation of giant stars formed near enough to the giant molecular cloud from which the Sun and planets later emerged to shower it with aluminum-26 and other important isotopes (via “Wolf-Rayet” winds). If either the timing or location of the solar system’s formation were adjusted ever so slightly sooner or later or nearer or farther relative to these massive stars, the forming solar system would have been destroyed (or severely damaged) or would have been inadequately enriched with aluminum-26.

And yet without this high ratio of aluminum-26 to aluminum-27, there would have been no “thermal processing of planetesimals,”³ to use the words of Gilmour and Middleton. This would mean no heat pulse to drive off the dangerously high (for advanced life) quantity of volatile gases—carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, water, etc. from the primordial solar system. As the researchers pointed out, without this heat pulse Earth would have retained far too much water for continents to be possible and far too much carbon for an atmosphere to be breathable.

Meanwhile, to acquire sufficient quantities of other elements essential for advanced life, the emerging solar system had to form at the just right location and time relative to two different types of supernovae as well as to several objects called “asymptotic giant branch stars.”⁴

All the requirements described thus far mandate that the Sun and its planets begin to form in a large and dense star cluster. However, once it’s appropriately enriched with the uranium, thorium, aluminum-26, and other essential elements, the solar system must be ejected from this cluster because advanced life cannot tolerate close encounters with other stars.⁵

Earth, itself, demands special circumstances during its formative years. One of the most stunning was an event described in 2004 by Robin Canup. Her theory stated that a planet slightly more massive than Mars (Mars = 0.107 Earth masses) collided with the newly formed Earth—at an impact angle of about 45 degrees and impact velocity of less than 4 kilometers/second.⁶ This low-velocity collision brought about four significant-for-advanced-life changes: (1) it blasted away most of Earth’s water and atmosphere; (2) it ejected light element material and delivered heavy elements; (3) it transformed both the interior and exterior structure of Earth; and (4) it led to the formation of Earth’s exceptionally large Moon.⁷ (Canup improved her model in 2008, concluding that a somewhat larger collider impacted a retrograde rotating proto-Earth, while further confirming her original findings.)⁸

Approximately 650 million years after that collision, yet another pivotal (for advanced life) event occurred. An orbital resonance between Jupiter and Saturn disrupted the asteroids and comets of the Kuiper Belt, triggering an episode called the Late Heavy Bombardment⁹ (see Figure 3). Over a period of less than a hundred million years, some 17,000 impactors smashed into Earth, together depositing 200 tons of material on every square yard of Earth’s surface.¹⁰ Many of these impactors pierced through Earth’s crust. In the final analysis, this intense period of bombardment, as hellish as it may seem, brought about a chemical transformation, both interior and exterior, that favored the elemental needs of later advanced life.

Figure 3: The Late Heavy Bombardment
Thousands of asteroids and comets pummeled Earth within a relatively brief time period some 3.9 billion years ago. This bombardment chemically transformed both Earth’s interior and exterior.
(Credit for images of asteroids and comets: NASA; credit for the deep space background: NASA/ESO; remaining artwork is the author’s.)

For a more complete list of Earth’s extraordinary quantities of chemical elements and compounds, see the table below. As you read it, be aware that every one of Earth’s exceptional abundances discovered to date has proved crucial for the support of life—advanced life, in particular. The evidence for the supernatural, super-intelligent, super-intentional design of Earth continues to mount.

Figure 4: Earth’s “Unobtainium,” Uraninite
Uraninite, also known as pitchblende, is the most uranium-rich ore on Earth. Uranium is more abundant on Earth than tin, antimony, or cadmium. Its exceptionally high abundance makes possible nuclear fission power plants. One kilogram of uranium-235 can yield up to 80 trillion joules of energy. And, because of its density, hardness, ease of use in machining and casting, and low cost, depleted uranium finds a wide range of industrial applications. [Photo Credit: Joachimsthal, Bohemia, Czechoslovakia Creative Commons (https://minerals.no-ip.com/Minerals/html/Pichblende1.html)]

Table: Earth’s Anomalous Abundances

The twenty-five elements listed below must exist on Earth in specific abundances for advanced life and/or support of civilization to be possible. For each listed element the number indicates how much more or less abundant it is, by mass, in Earth’s crust, relative to magnesium’s abundance, as compared to its average abundance in the rest of the Milky Way Galaxy, also relative to the element magnesium. Asterisks denote “vital poisons,” essential elements that if too abundant would be toxic to advanced life, but if too scarce would fail to provide the quantities of nutrients essential for advanced life. The water measure compares the amount of water in and on Earth relative to the minimum amount the best planet formation models would predict for a planet the mass of Earth orbiting a star identical to the Sun at the same distance from the Sun.¹¹

carbon*	1,200 times less	cobalt*	5 times less
nitrogen*	2,400 times less	selenium*	30 times less
fluorine*	50 times more	yttrium	50 times more
sodium*	20 times more	zirconium	130 times more
aluminum	40 times more	niobium	170 times more
phosphorus*	4 times more¹²	moybdenum*	5 times more
sulfur*	60 times less¹³	tin*	3 times more
potassium*	90 times more	iodine*	3 times more
calcium	20 times more	gold	5 times less
titanium	65 times more	lead	170 times more
vanadium*	9 times more	uranium	340 times more
chromium*	5 times less	thorium	610 times more
nickel*	20 times less	water	250 times less

Endnotes

J. D. Gilmour and C. A. Middleton, “Anthropic Selection of a Solar System with a High ²⁶Al/²⁷Al Ratio: Implications and a Possible Mechanism,” Icarus 201 (June 2009): 821–23. The quote is taken from the abstract.
Eric Gaidos et al., “²⁶Al and the Formation of the Solar System from a Molecular Cloud Contaminated by Wolf-Rayet Winds,” Astrophysical Journal 696 (May 10, 2009): 1854–63.
J. D. Gilmour and C. A. Middleton, 821.
Hugh Ross, “Solar System’s Extraordinary Birth Environment,” Today’s New Reason to Believe (February 16, 2009), https://www.reasons.org/astronomy/galaxy-design/solar-system’s-extraordinary-birth-environment.
Juan José Jimenez-Torres and Barbara Pichardo, “Dynamics of Planetary Systems in Different Galactic Environments,” Astrobiology 8 (April 2008): 392; Hugh Ross, “Rare Solar System Location,” Today’s New Reason To Believe (October 20, 2008), https://www.reasons.org/rare-solar-system-location.
Robin M. Canup, “Simulations of a Late Lunar-Forming Impact,” Icarus 168 (April 2004): 433–56; Robin M. Canup, “Dynamics of Lunar Formation,” Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics 42 (September 2004): 441–75.
Reasons To Believe’s documentary DVD Journey Toward Creation includes an animation clip and several illustrations that describe all four of these events.
Robin M. Canup, “Lunar-Forming Collisions with Pre-Impact Rotation,” Icarus 196 (August 2008): 518–38.
Richard A. Kerr, “Did Jupiter and Saturn Team Up To Pummel the Inner Solar System?” Science 306 (December 3, 2004): 1676.
Ronny Schoenberg et al., “Tungsten Isotope Evidence From ~3.8-Gyr Metamorphosed Sediments for Early Meteorite Bombardment of the Earth,” Nature 418 (25 July 2002): 403–5; A. D. Anbar et al., “Extraterrestrial Iridium, Sediment Accumulation and the Habitability of the Early Earth’s Surface,” Journal of Geophysical Research 106, E2 (2001): 3219–36.
Linda T. Elkins-Tanton and Sara Seager, “Ranges of Atmospheric Mass and Composition of Super-Earth Exoplanets,” Astrophysical Journal 685 (October 1, 2008): 1237–46; Hugh Ross, “Planet Formation: Problems with Water, Carbon, and Air,” Today’s New Reason To Believe (January 12, 2009), https://www.reasons.org/rtbs-creation-model/cosmic-design/planet-formation-problems-too-much-water-too-much-carbon-and-too-much-air.
M. S. Sisodia, “Evidences Support an Extraordinary Event, Possibly an Impact During the Proterozoic for Phosphorus Abundance on the Earth,” Astrobiology 8 (April 2008): 360; Hugh Ross, “Where Did Earth Get Its Phosphorus?” (October 13, 2008), https://www.reasons.org/where-did-earth-get-its-phosphorus.
Fabrice Gailard and Bruno Scaillet, “The Sulfur Content of Volcanic Gases on Mars,” Earth and Planetary Science Letters 279 (March 15, 2009): 34–43; Hugh Ross, “Sulfur-Poor Earth Conducive to Life,” Today’s New Reason To Believe (May 4, 2009), https://www.reasons.org/SulfurPoorEarthConducivetoLife; Benton Clark, “Death By Sulfur: Consequences of Ubiquitous S Before and After the Biotic Transition for Mars and Other S-Rich Planets,” Astrobiology 8 (April 2008): 433; Hugh Ross, “Too Much Sulfur,” Today’s New Reason To Believe (October 6, 2008), https://www.reasons.org/too-much-sulfur.

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A Case for Divine Design

Fazale “Fuz” Rana — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 08:00:00 +0000

“I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life, and stir with an uneasy, half vital motion.”

— Mary Shelley, on the inspiration for Frankenstein

In Mary Shelley’s cautionary thriller, burgeoning scientist Victor Frankenstein obsesses over discovering how to bring inanimate matter to life and eventually bestows life on a humanoid monster, only to later abandon it in disgust. Victor’s moral failings result in tragic deaths at the hands of his creature. It’s not clear who’s the true monster—Victor, his creature, or both.

If there is a real life Frankenstein, he might well be Craig Venter.

Possibly one of the most important scientists in recent years, Venter has little patience for the red tape and bureaucracy that characterize many scientific programs. Like the fictional Victor Frankenstein, he is a polarizing figure, much admired and much hated by people inside and outside the scientific community.

Venter’s company, Synthetic Genomics, is devoted to creating artificial, nonnatural living microbes that demonstrate commercial utility. This work has generated a mixture of excitement and horror. Scientists like Venter claim that these novel life-forms will benefit humanity and go a long way toward resolving the energy and climate crises.

But this endeavor raises questions. Should human beings “play God”? Many people, both theists and atheists, believe that if these researchers attain their goal, then there must be nothing special about any life. They’re prepared to say life’s origin could have easily taken place on the early Earth without God’s involvement.

While the ongoing work by Venter’s team stands as a major milestone in the quest to “create” an artificial life-form, ironically, instead of supporting an evolutionary origin of life, this research demonstrates that life’s beginnings and transformation cannot happen apart from the work of an intelligent, purposeful agent.

Scientists are not just rushing into the lab to throw nucleotides haphazardly into test tubes. Instead, they have devised a synthesis strategy with painstaking effort. Each stage of this process demands exact planning and execution, as well as knowledge of the intended outcome.

For example, Venter’s team must identify the minimal gene set required for life’s existence before they can reengineer an artificial life-form from the top down. As they continue to hone in on life’s essential genes and biochemical systems, what’s most striking is the remarkable complexity of life even in its minimal form. And this basic complexity is the first clue that life requires a Creator.

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Incomplete Snowball Earth Shows Divine Care

Hugh Ross — Fri, 16 Dec 2005 08:00:00 +0000

TNRTB Archive – Retained for reference information

Remains of photosynthetic organisms from 700 million years ago provide evidence for a supercaring Creator preparing a suitable habitat for humanity. A growing body of evidence argues for a snowball Earth event—where glaciers extended from the poles nearly to the equator, thus covering the whole Earth—around 700 million years ago. Geologists would expect runaway glaciation during such events, where glaciers completely cover a planet with little chance of the glaciers receding. A team of international scientists found biomarkers of photosynthetic activity and a complex microbial ecosystem during this last snowball event. These results demonstrate that the earth was not completely covered in glaciers and that sections of the equatorial oceans were exposed to sunlight. It is remarkable that runaway glaciation did not make the earth uninhabitable. Instead, shortly after the earth emerged from the snowball event, the largest explosion of biological advance occurred during the Cambrian explosion. RTB’s creation model predicts outcomes like this where major geological events are used to prepare Earth for the introduction of more advanced species of life.

Alison N. Olcott et al., “Biomarker Evidence for Photosynthesis During Neoproterozoic Glaciation,” Science 310 (2005): 471-74.
https://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/310/5747/471%20

Related Resource

Hugh Ross, Fine-Tuning for Life On Earth (Updated June 2004)

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Origins of Life, by Fazale Rana and Hugh Ross

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