Our precious planet. Part 4. Timing of civilization

1. Introduction

This post tries  to explain how the genesis and evolution of human civilization depended on our planet having first gone through an orchestrated sequence of astronomical, geological and biological processes. This is over and above the cosmic fine tuning needed to allow pre-human life to exist. (Some of Part 4 overlaps with Part 3 but re-presents the material from a different perspective.)


2. Defining civilization

Civilization I am defining as a way of living which, depending on the values and beliefs adopted confers  benefits on its people through improving technology, communications and transport, increasing security against internal or foreign attacks on life and property,  growing agricultural efficiency, development of medicine and continually evolving knowledge of the world and how humanity relates to the Creator.

3. Origin

It appears to have started over 5000 years ago with the Sumerians in the fertile, periodically flooded plains between the Euphrates and the Tigris known as Mesopotamia, roughly coinciding with southern Iraq, Kuwait and parts of western Iran.

4. Cosmic time window

The universe started 13.73 billion years ago, expanding steadily after the first fraction of a second (the Big Bang). After 7 billion years it started to accelerate and appears set to continue this acceleration indefinitely. Before the stars were as far apart as they are now an observer anywhere in the universe would be blinded by a perpetually bright sky, unable to observe or deduce the nature of the cosmos, even if the atmosphere was clear. Only very recently in cosmic terms have the stars been sufficiently far apart to permit peering back to the moment of creation.

Conversely, in future the expansion will be so fast that observers would see only relatively nearby objects, and again would be unable to witness the Big Bang creation event.

Therefore we appear to be in a time window of a few million years when it is possible to deduce the history and nature of our universe.

5. Solar time window

The Sun, a yellow dwarf star with a lifetime of about  10 billion years, emitted radiation at a subdued level as it  entered into a relatively stable period of solar flare activity, beginning 50,000 years ago and likely to continue for another 50,000. This is based on the assumption that it will follow the pattern of similar stars observed at different stages of evolution  over billions of years i.e. by monitoring a given type of star at different distances, you can see what that type of star was doing at different times in the past.

Even with the Sun in a relatively calm phase it still emits lethal streams of particles. At the same time our planet is irradiated with life destroying cosmic rays from supernovae, gamma-ray bursts  and the supermassive black hole at the centre of  our galaxy. Providentially, at this stage of galactic evolution and in our present position in the galaxy, such irradiation is well below normal. Nevertheless  it would still have prevented human life without the magnetic shield which surrounds our planet and which was in place in time to protect humans when they first appeared, as it does now.

UV rays from the  Sun also would have prevented human life had it not been for the ozone layer, around 25 km high, the triatomic oxygen molecules of which absorb much of the incoming ultraviolet, rendering it benevolent, e.g. by stimulating the production of vitamin D, rather than doing harm to the body.

6. Clear skies and celestial order



By the time human beings (homo sapiens sapiens) appeared the Earth’s rotation period had slowed down from just a few hours to the 24 hours we know today. It is still gradually slowing down because of the Moon’s influence and at some time in the far future it will be too slow for habitability because of the effect on climate. Even another half hour or so would cause too much difference between day and night temperature.

Initially the sky was opaque. Then by the time human beings appeared it had cleared over much of the globe to permit a good view of the Sun,  Moon, planets, stars and comets. The Moon and  Sun in particular would have excited the curiosity of early man by their cyclic order, phases and eclipses, as well as by the way their movements are related to tides and seasons.  The stars, Milky Way and planets would also have been sources of wonder. The ordered behaviour of the heavens and the correlation of this to the seasons  would have led many to believe in a hidden order throughout the living world.


7. Preparation for agriculture and its consequences

Cultivation of land for crops was necessary for the generation of food surpluses which allowed  resources to be spent on discovery, music, art, literature, drama, public buildings, a civil service , a judiciary, a religious order and  armies for protection, conquest and subjugation.

The first civilization, the Sumerians in Mesopotamia, was made possible by the large areas of very fertile soil deposited when the Euphrates and Tigris flooded. This soil had been formed over millions of years by the weathering, erosion and crushing of rocks coupled with the action of bacteria. The rocks had a composition beneficial to farming because of the minerals brought to the surface of the earth by tectonic activity, itself a consequence of the heat from radioactive U and Th generated in supernovae and somehow transported into the vicinity of the Earth as it formed, 4.4 billion years ago.

The fertility of soil greatly depends on the fixation of nitrogen from the atmosphere,  a process which depends on  lightning for energy  and on the presence of bacteria or blue green algae.  Again, the possibility of civilization depends on the most unlikely of causes. No lightning and  bacteria would mean no Sistine Chapel.

8. Preparation for construction and technology

Wood, metallic ores and clay were essential to allow the construction of houses, public buildings, bridges, roads, temples, ploughs, carts , ships and, within a short span of  geological time, aircraft, spaceships, engines, computers, communication technology and much  else. The wood obviously came from forests,  the clay was another form of soil (see above) while the metallic ores were made available through plate tectonic activity which prevented heavy metals like iron sinking through the magma towards the centre of the planet. Certain metals, e.g. gold and titanium, were also delivered by meteorites.

Apart from its use in cooking, keeping warm and providing light, fire was essential  for smelting, refining and  materials processing, all necessary for the development of a civilization.  Fire depended very much on the atmosphere having the right amount of oxygen for controllable combustion and appears to have been the result of sophisticated biochemical 1feedback over billions of years.

9. Preparation for water transport and motive power

Apart from the provision of fish etc. for food the rivers, lakes and oceans which cross and connect the continents were and still are  needed  for  the transport of heavy loads up to very long distances, making trade and industrial specialization possible on a global scale
.
Fast flowing rivers were also used for pumps and mills. Even today they are used for hydroelectric schemes .  All expanses of water were used for recreation right from the earliest civilizations.

10. Animals

Certain domesticated animals were crucial to early societies for motive power, transport, farming, hunting, hygiene by scavenging in human settlements, sport and companionship. These included, and still include: oxen, sheep, goats, horses, donkeys,  elephants, birds of prey and dogs. Such animals had a genetic structure lending itself to varying degrees of selective breeding.  Parts of the world where they had been hunted to extinction (e.g. parts of the Americas)  or were not present initially, were not able to progress beyond the Neolithic stage.

Birds of prey must have inspired the concept of humans being able to fly, a vision which ultimately led to balloons, aircraft and spaceships. In fact without birds it is difficult to imagine how anyone would even have dreamed of flying.

11. A precious planet indeed

 So overall it looks as though civilization was made possible by a unique set of circumstances and that the Earth is indeed a precious planet.

Whether we are the  only conscious beings in the created order and ones having a sense of love, truth, justice and beauty as well as relentless curiosity and the power of reason we are unlikely ever to know. If there were no creator, i.e. if all the above is a product of blind chance, the probability of sentient beings elsewhere is, for all practical and rational purposes, zero.

Conversely, if there is a God (and all rational and reasonable argument points in that direction) no being in his or her mortal state can define God’s ultimate purpose, one which could include sentient beings on another precious planet. Personally, it would not bother me if the humans are the only sentient life in the universe. It need not make us feel lonely- just alone with God.

Acknowledgements

These posts in the Our Precious Planet series were inspired largely by Hugh Ross’s Why the universe is the way it is. Other sources include  Paul Davies’s The Goldilocks enigma,  Peter Douglas Ward’s Rare earth,  and Rodney Holder’s Big Bang Big God. I also made use of Wikipedia and popular science sources.

John Sears
Author, 2077:Knights of Peace

Links to all 4 parts of Our Precious Planet and some related links are given here.

Muslim fundamentalists' hatred of the West

An e-mail contact kindly forwarded to me this link to an article called The Roots of Muslim Rage by Bernard Lewis. Initially I quickly scanned through thinking it was analysing the problem of jihad terrorism today but was puzzled by its reference to the Soviet Union rather than Russia. It turned out to have been published in 1990 and it was clear that some 15 years before the US invasion of Iraq, instigated by the Twin Towers atrocity (11 Sept 2002), radical Islam had been recognised as a serious problem by this author. 

 I also re-read a chapter of The Great Reckoning by James Dale Davidson and William Rees-Mogg. The chapter was called Mohammad replaces Marx. This was published in 1993 and again Islamic terrorism was identified, well ahead of time, as a serious problem for the world by 2000 AD and beyond. It opens with this quote from Saddam Hussein in 1990:

 ‘Oh Arabs, Oh Muslims and faithful everywhere, this is your day to rise and defend Mecca, which is captured by the spears of the Americans and the Zionists. Burn the soil under the feet of the aggressors and invaders.’   

This was made in the context of the lead up to the first Gulf War, when coalition forces reversed his invasion of Kuwait.

 Here are some points which emerged from these works with my comments in italics.

• Mohammad was a politician and soldier as well as a prophet. This makes it difficult to separate religion from politics in the Muslim world. Jesus, on the other hand, was the human face of God and said ‘render... unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s and unto God the things which are God’s.’ Although the Roman church was closely related to government  the potential for separation of church and state was implicit in Christian theology. This was compatible with the ideas of Spinoza, Locke and other philosophers of the Enlightenment, culminating in the United States constitution. I think separation of the powers is good but that in the UK a small representation in the House of Lords (the UK's second chamber), i.e. the 26 Lords Spiritual,  is a good way of keeping  Christian ideals in the minds of politicians and should be retained, because it is from these ideals that Western civilisation (Christendom) originated.

• Islam has made great contributions to humanity. These are not listed by either source. Off hand I can think of three: algebra, the Kalam cosmological argument for the existence of God and Islamic architecture such as the Al Hambra palace in Spain. The problem with Islamic science was the same as that for Greek, Egyptian, Persian, Babylonian and Chinese science: the findings of a creative individual were not launched into a fertile, receptive environment where they could be peer reviewed, pruned and grown – this was the strength of Protestant Europe during the Enlightenment after the printing press, and later of the USA.  Today, Islamic scientists along with Chinese, Japanese and all others, publish and develop their work through the global peer-review network which sprang from Protestant Christendom.  Also, the idea of questioning the status quo seems to be foreign to Islam and this inevitably holds up progress in all human endeavours. Democracy in an Islamic state could not be democracy as Christendom (the West)) knows it.

• The Soviet Union was an atheist state which suppressed Islam and gave help to Israel yet never was the subject of hatred the way the US was and is, because the US culture is offensive to them yet popular with many young Muslims, who like to wear baseball hats and T-shirts. The Soviets lived an austere monk-like existence, unless they were members of the Party, were totalitarian and did not degrade the Muslim world with a hedonistic lifestyle. The author lists sexism, racism, imperialism, institutionalised patriarchy, slavery, tyranny and exploitation as reasons which Muslims had for hating the USA. I can’t see that these are characteristics of the USA- most seem to be rife in Islamic countries. I think the rampant debt driven consumerism, commercialism, sex obsession and materialism of the West are more offensive to Islam (as they are to me as a Christian).  Perhaps the USA is a threat because it promotes Christianity as a rival belief while its society offends against both Muslim and many Christian values, largely as a result of the media. 

• When the cold war finished so did the injection of money and expertise from the West and the East into the third world. This left many Soviet or western educated young Muslim men with no career prospects. They were a natural prey for jihad recruiters. At the same time the heads of Islamic families were having their authority undermined by female emancipation, the clergy were being challenged by western educated young Muslims and Sharia law could not be instituted in western countries.

• A lot of oil money went into financing jihad.  I believe that the Saudi government was blackmailed into financing jihad in return for being left alone by Bin Laden etc., who wanted to enforce reforms on Saudi Arabia, which they saw as decadent. Drug trafficking has also been a major source of revenue, especially for the Taliban.

• Muslims, who see all other religions as enemies of Allah do not feel obliged to protect minority religions within a Muslim country, yet expect such protection for Muslims in non-Muslim countries. In previous eras  protection was offered to non-Muslim minorities within Islamic countries but with diminished rights.

• Initially Muslim intellectuals welcomed the West and tried to copy some of its methods of government, technology, business and science. However, these methods did not suit the Muslim world-view and as they failed to be fruitful bitterness and resentment set in.  Islam appears most suitable in helping backward countries to maintain stability and give a minimum standard of living, albeit one much lower than in the West, based on a charity safety net for the poor operating at a local level.

•  Any Muslim who converts to Christianity is severely punished, either directly or through his family or both. Often the punishment is death. Some Muslims are secretly worshipping Christ (I don't know how many; it is for obvious reasons difficult for anyone to identify them. If anyone has knowledge to the contrary please let me know. I would be more than happy to modify the preceding sentences. I am stating the truth as I understand it.)
• Muslim intellectuals in the first half of the 20th century were  influenced by Marxists, Nazis and existentialists like Jean-Paul Sartre. They were encouraged to revolt against western 'imperialism'. 

• In practice the main cause of resentment is the domination of infidels over true believers in Allah. The fanatics cannot see that Allah could be the same God as that of the other monotheistic religions who has reasons beyond our comprehension for revealing himself in different ways to different peoples at different times and places in history. There is only one Allah and all who disbelieve in him are enemies of God. Do all Muslims think this today? I find it difficult to believe. 

• It is possible that terrorist fanatics are partly the product of many generations of in-breeding and community isolation, which is a problem in parts of the Middle East.
  
  
• Violent 'Muslim' extremists cannot be in tune with God - in fact they are going directly against God in trying to enforce their ideas on others against their free will. When humans separate themselves from God anything is permissible. The protestant and catholic factions in Ireland have done the same in the past; some still do. It  can only be called evil.

• The first Islamic attack was on the US Embassy in 1979, instigated by Iran. Violence in response to Salmon Rushdie’s anti-Islamic novel followed a decade later. Iran fermented and financed fundamentalism and terrorism in the 1990s. Iran is a Shia country. Did they encourage both Shia and Sunni Moslems to attack the West? 

The tragic invasion of Iraq after the Twin Towers attack was understandable, given that it was based on apparently erroneous intelligence data about weapons of mass destruction, although there are some who claim that chemical weapons had indeed existed  in Iraq up to a short time before the invasion but had been secretly transferred to Syria. What I find impossible to understand is the lack of any long term, carefully constructed plan on how to occupy and stabilize the regime after Saddam  had been deposed.

Kyrie eleison

John

Author, 2077: Knights of Peace