When I see Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and stars that You have established, what is man that You should remember him, and the son of man that You should be mindful of him? Yet You have made him slightly less than the angels, and You have crowned him with glory and majesty. (Tehillim 8:4-6)
You’re probably reading this book in a room. Your room is in a building. Your building is in a city. Your city is in a county … which is in a country … which is on a continent … which is on planet Earth … which is part of a solar system … which is one of billions of solar systems in the Milky Way galaxy … which is only one galaxy among billions of galaxies in the universe. The universe is much larger than the distance even our strongest telescopes can see.
When you think about it, we’re incredibly small. Earth, which is so immense that it would take several lifetimes to walk its circumference, is nothing but a speck of dust in the sea of an ostensibly infinite universe. In fact, a speck of dust in your room is larger by comparison.
Yet, the Mishnah (Sanhedrin 4:5) teaches, “Each person is required to say, ‘The entire universe was created for me.’”
As strange as that may sound, some scientists have found evidence that this is true in the most literal sense.
The Goldilocks Zone
The Privileged Planet is a fascinating book that discusses in detail from a scientific perspective the improbabilities of the existence of life on Earth.
One of the more interesting ideas presented in the book is referred to as the “Goldilocks Zone,” which scientists label a place in the galaxy where a habitable planet can exist. It’s not too hot and not too cold — but just right. Earth is precisely positioned in the “Goldilocks Zone” of the Milky Way galaxy.
Within our solar system, the habitable zone is relatively narrow, beginning well outside the orbit of Venus and ending short of the orbit of Mars. If Earth was just 5% closer to the sun it would be subject to the same fate as Venus, a runaway greenhouse effect with temperatures running to nearly 900 degrees. Conversely, if Earth were 20% further from the sun, carbon dioxide clouds would form in its upper atmosphere, initiating a cycle of ice and cold.
Similarly, just as our location in the solar system is optimized for habitability, so is our location in the galaxy. The Milky Way is a spiral galaxy, which means it’s highly flattened, has the appearance of a spherical ball at the center, and has spiral arms extending outward from it. Earth is about halfway between the center of the galaxy and the edge. The most dangerous place in the galaxy for life is in the center, where the density of stars and supernovas (i.e., exploding stars) is very high, producing deadly radiation.
At the same time, in the outer regions of our galaxy, the abundance of “heavy elements” — such as iron, magnesium, silicon, and oxygen — is lower. These are necessary to build Earth-size planets needed to sustain life.
The region where complex life is possible within the Milky Way has been called “The Galactic Habitable Zone.” Even within this zone, there are places friendlier to life than others. The Earth is located in one of them, in a relatively safe and uncrowded region, optimally suited for life to exist.
The Privileged Planet
Earth itself is uniquely equipped to support life. Its crust varies between four and thirty miles thick, a relatively paper-thin surface, consisting of more than a dozen tectonic plates that are in constant motion. This motion regulates the planet’s internal temperature and allows chemicals essential for living organisms to “breathe” outward and remix in a way that is necessary for life. If Earth’s crust were a little thicker, plate-tectonic recycling could not take place.
If Earth were smaller, its magnetic field would be weaker, allowing the solar wind to strip away our atmosphere, slowly transforming our planet into a dead, barren world much like Mars.
The atmosphere is a thin blue ribbon of glowing light measuring less than 1% of the planet’s diameter. It’s composed of just the right mixture of elements to ensure a livable climate, protection from the sun’s radiation, and the correct combination of gasses necessary for liquid water and complex life.
If our sun was smaller, like 90% of the stars in the galaxy, the habitable zone would be smaller. Earth would have to be positioned closer for life to exist. However, the increased gravity would lock our planet’s rotation into synchronization with its orbit, which would in essence keep one side of the planet always facing the sun and the other side always facing away from it. The side continually facing the sun would be bombarded by radiation from solar flares, while the dark side of the planet would be shrouded in perpetual cold and ice.
The Odds-Makers
The Privileged Planet cites scientists who make an important point about how to view the truly improbable circumstances that allow life to exist on our planet. There are 100 billion stars in the galaxy. This might lead someone to believe that the odds are pretty high that life developed somewhere else in the galaxy. However, this vastness has to be weighed against the improbability of life emerging on another planet.
Researchers have developed equations estimating the probability of attaining, simultaneously, even just 20 or so of the basic factors necessary for life. The number is exceedingly small, an estimated 10-15, which is one chance in a one followed by 15 zeros, or one one-thousandth of one one-trillionth. When compared to a number as large as the 100 billion stars that are in the galaxy, the number 10-15 is much smaller. In other words, our planet is truly a miracle.
The Anthropic Principle
Some cite this as an example of the Anthropic Principle (“anthropic,” from the Greek word anthropos, means “human”). In the simplest terms, this means that everything in the universe seems to be uniquely created to support human existence. Put another way, the Anthropic Principle means, “The universe was created for me.”
In the vast expanse of infinite existence there is nothing else like this little island of life called Earth.
How improbable it is — even given the staggering number of solar systems in the universe — that there’s a little speck in the universe that can support life and afford human beings the opportunity not only to survive, but to think about concepts like the Anthropic Principle.
But the Mishnah didn’t say the universe was created for mankind. It said each person is required to say, “for me.”
SUSAN YOUR OK
Susan was a non-frum professional who had grown up in an affluent neighborhood but found much of the “real” world to be materialistic, demeaning and not very meaningful. Although she dared not think about it much, she sensed the gnawing questions like: Does any of this matter? Why am I here? Who am I?
One of the things that gave her comfort was her license plate, which read, “SUSAN YOUR OK.” Whenever she got down or questioned her self-worth she would look at the license plate and feel a little better. But not for long.
One day Susan decided to take some time off and visit New York. There she reconnected with an old friend and discovered, to her shock, that she had become interested in Judaism. What an odd thing to do. Before she knew it Susan was having deep discussions with her friend, attending classes and beginning to see the wonder of her heritage for the first time, starting with the family life and communal warmth.
Quickly, things really began to click — so much so that she considered relocating to New York where the people and teachers she’d come to respect were located. But she remained ambivalent. On the one hand, she saw the beauty and meaning of a Torah life. On the other hand, it was extremely difficult to move forward.
RUN 613
Then the moment of truth came. It happened in the most unlikely of places — on line at the motor vehicles office. If she was going to stay she would have to permanently give up her out-of-state license plate. As she waited in line one thought ate away at her: Was she really making the right decision?
Everything seemed to be symbolized in the act of handing in her beloved “SUSAN YOUR OK” plate.
Suddenly she found herself at the front of the line. Behind a cold pane of glass, the clerk motioned Susan to hand over her old license plate. Susan’s heart pounded. She grasped it tightly and slowly placed it down. Even then she didn’t want to let go… but she did.
The next few moments seemed to last forever. Had she made the right decision? Should she really continue in this direction?
A few moments later, the clerk handed her the new license plate. Susan looked at it and did a double take. Was it possible? Yes!!!
The new license read: RUN 613.
This chapter is from Awaken Your Emunah, Volume 1. Volume 2 is also available. See all of Yaakov’s books.
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