The Triunity Report

Has God created more than one planet for life?

By Hugh Ross, Ph.D.

In the second edition of The Creator and the Cosmos, I describe forty-three planetary, stellar, and galactic characteristics that must be fine-tuned for life to exist on a planet, not just life as we know it but any conceivable kind of life. Since the printing of that edition in 1995, three more design characteristics have been discovered. The sensitivity of these characteristics is so great that even if the universe contains as many planets as it does stars, the chance of even finding one livable planet is less than one in a million trillion trillion. Given these numbers, a person can more rationally conclude that Earth is a divine miracle than to believe it is the product of chance.¹ And the evidence that life's origin also reflects intelligent design rather than random or natural processes is orders of magnitude greater.^2,3

As the discovery of extra solar planets continues, the evidence for Earth's divine design will doubtless grow, and with that prospect I am thrilled. As to the theological question of whether or not God created more than one planet for life, I lean to the opinion that He did not. Hebrews 10 tells us that Jesus Christ died once and for all, and 1 Corinthians 4 indicates that God's angels are focusing their attention on one planet to learn about God's grace. These verses (among others) seem to imply just one life site in the universe. However, the information is insufficient to warrant dogmatism.

References:

- Hugh Ross, "New Planets Raise Unwarranted Speculation About Life" (Science In The News), Facts & Faith, volume 10, number 1, (1996), p.3

Hugh Ross' References:

-1. Hugh Ross, The Creator and the Cosmos, second edition (Colorado Springs, Colo.: NavPress, 1995), pp. 143-144

-2. Ross, The Creator and the Cosmos, pp. 147-156

-3. Hubert Yockey, Information Theory and Molecular Biology (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1992).