God Arises
Nature and Science Speak about God
~ 146 ~
from the sunlight through the skin, or indirectly
from edible matter through the digestive system.
How wonderful it is to have all these benefits in
exact proportion to our requirements.
Take oxygen, for example. It is the source of life and
is not obtainable from any source other than the
atmosphere. But had it formed 50% of the
atmosphere or more, instead of the present 21%,
combustibility of all matter on the earth’s surface
would have been so high that even if just a single
tree caught fire, whole forests would at once
explode. Similarly, had the proportion of oxygen in
the atmosphere been as low as 10%, life might
conceivably have adjusted to this over the centuries,
but it is unlikely that human civilization would
have taken its present form. And if all of the free
oxygen instead of only a part, had been absorbed by
the matter present on the earth’s surface, no animal
life would have been possible at all.
Along with oxygen, hydrogen, carbon dioxide and
carbon gases in their free form as well as in the form
of different compounds are the most important
ingredients of life; the very foundations, in fact, on