God’s Universe Is Filled With Water Life – OpEd

New research from Stanford University shows that water sprayed into a mixture of gases thought to be present in Earth’s early atmosphere can lead to the formation of organic molecules with carbon-nitrogen bonds, including uracil, one of the components of DNA and RNA.

The study, published in the journal Science Advances, adds evidence to the much-disputed Miller-Urey hypothesis, which argues that life on the planet started from a lightning strike. That theory is based on a 1952 experiment showing that organic compounds would form with the application of electricity to a mixture of water and inorganic gases.

In the current study, the researchers found that water spray, which produces small electrical charges, could do that work all by itself, no added electricity necessary. If this is what happened life should be much more easily established on other well watered planets, and intelligent life should be widespread in our galaxy.

Even though the tiny flashes of micro-lightning may be hard to see, they still carry a lot of energy. The researchers demonstrated that power by sending sprays of room-temperature water into a gas mixture containing nitrogen, methane, carbon dioxide, and ammonia gases, which are all thought to be present on early Earth. This resulted in the formation of organic molecules with carbon-nitrogen bonds, including the amino acid glycine, and uracil.

During Medieval times almost all Christian theologians accepted the Ptolemaic earth centered Greek view of the universe as an absolute universal truth. The Catholic Inquisition punished those who dared to voice other ideas.

Even in America today, many Christians avoid learning about new scientific discoveries according to a recently (February 2015) completed study “Religious Understandings of Science”. Members of  non-Christian religions; 42 percent of Jews, and 52 percent of Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus (taken as a group) are more than twice as interested in new scientific discoveries as Protestant evangelicals (22 percent) because about 30 percent of all evangelicals see the world-views of science and religion as being in opposition.

I do not know why so many Christians believe that the rarity of life in our universe proves that God must have created life only on this planet. Perhaps they believed that if intelligent life were found to exist on other planets; it would diminish the miracle of God’s creation of Human Beings.

For me the opposite is true. That God’s universal creation is filled with life is simply the result of God’s mercy and love of all living things. The Qur’an and the Hebrew Bible teach that the Living God created the whole universe to be conducive to the universal development and evolution of life.

The Qur’an says, “He is the Lord of all the Worlds”  (Quran 41:10) and “We have not sent you but as a mercy for the worlds.” (21: 107) Some commentators say this refers to “the 18.000 worlds created by Allah. Our world is one of them” (Mir’at-e-Kainat, vol.1, p.77).

The Hebrew Bible says in the Zabur of Prophet David, King of Israel; ” Your kingdom is a kingdom of all the worlds; and Your dominion is for all generations.” (Psalms 145:13)

I am a Reform Rabbi who first became interested in Islam 55 years ago, when I studied it at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.  I have continued my study of Islam off and on since that time. I now consider myself to be a Reform Rabbi and an Islamic Jew. Actually I am an Islamic Jew i.e. a faithful Jew submitting to the will of God, because I am a Reform Rabbi.

As a Rabbi I am faithful to the covenant that God made with Abraham – the first Muslim Jew, and I submit to the commandments that God made with the people of Israel at Mount Sinai. Thus, I see scientific things from the perspective of both the Qur’an and the Torah.

In January 2013, astronomers estimated that there could be at least 17 billion Earth-sized exoplanets in just our galaxy; the Milky Way. They also said that one in six stars could host an Earth-sized planet in a close orbit.

Now proof that Allah’s Universe is filled with life is coming closer. NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope has discovered a star with three planets only slightly larger than Earth. The outermost planet, which is 50% larger than planet earth, orbits in the zone where surface temperatures could be moderate enough for liquid water and perhaps life to exist.

The star ranks among the top 10 nearest stars known to have transiting planets. The star’s close enough for astronomers to study the planet’s atmospheres to determine if it has oxygen could possibly be conducive to multicellular life forms.

The star is a cool red M-dwarf about half the size and mass of our own sun. At a distance of 150 light years, the star ranks among the top 10 nearest stars known to have transiting planets. The star’s proximity means it’s bright enough for astronomers to study the planets’ atmospheres to determine whether they are like Earth’s atmosphere and possibly conducive to life.

For those who believe in the One God of all the inhabitable worlds, these two new scientific studies are not shocking. Unlike the Roman inquisition’s condemnation of Galileo, no Muslim or Jewish astronomer was ever condemned by a Muslim or Jewish inquisition, because Jews and Muslims never had an institution like the inquisition.

Also, because both Muslims and Jews had many philosophers who were critics of Aristotle’s and Ptolemy’s science, most medieval Jewish and Muslim religious leaders did not feel they had to prevent new science from disagreeing with Greek science.

Thus, even as new discoveries always change the scientific understanding of God’s universe; the religious belief that the whole universe exalts God and reveals God’s glory remains the same.

Thus, the Zabur of Prophet David, King of Israel says; “The heavens declare the glory of God.” (Zabur of David-Psalm 19:2) and the Qur’an of Prophet Muhammad clearly states: ” Do the unbelievers not realize that the heavens and the earth used to be one solid mass that we exploded into existence? And from water we made all living things. Would they (then) believe? ” (Qur’an-Anbiyaa 21:30)