God Arises
Nature and Science Speak about God
~ 135 ~
The habitable area of the earth is thus doubled
and our Earth sustains a greater diversity of
plant life than would be possible on a
stationary globe.
Secondly, the atmosphere of life-supporting
gases is sufficiently high (about 500 miles) and
dense to blanket the earth against the deadly
impact of twenty million meteors that daily
enter it at speeds of about thirty miles per
second. Among many other functions, the
atmosphere also maintains the temperature
within safe limits for life; and carries the vital
supply of fresh water vapor far inland from
the oceans to irrigate the earth, without which
it would become a lifeless desert. Thus the
oceans, with the atmosphere, are the
balancing wheel of Nature.
Four remarkable properties of water, —its
power of absorbing vast quantities of oxygen
at low temperatures, its maximum density at
4 degrees C above freezing point whereby
lakes and rivers remain liquid, the lesser
density of ice than water so that it remains on
