God Arises
Nature and Science Speak about God
~ 139 ~
A tendency to take human existence too much for
granted is easily corrected by considering for a
moment the proposition that since the earth is
moving continuously at a velocity of one thousand
miles per hour (and although our feet are in contact
with the ground, we are all of us hanging with our
heads down in space), we ought to be cast off
centrifugally into outer space, just like so many
grains of sand flying off a rotating bicycle wheel.
An alarming idea, isn’t it! But, of course, nothing of
the sort happens, because, fortunately for us, the
gravitational force of the earth and the atmospheric
pressure together hold our bodies safely in position
on the earth’s surface. This bilateral action keeps us
clinging to the earth’s surface no matter in which
hemisphere we happen to be. The pressure which
the atmosphere exerts upon the human body is the
rather surprising figure of 15½ lbs (about 8
kilograms) per square inch. But we do not feel the
effect of such intense pressure, because the blood in
our bodies exerts an equal pressure in the opposite
direction.
On the basis of his own observation and studies,
Newton came to the conclusion that all bodies exert
