The water cycle:Water is essential to life.None of us can live without it for more than a few days.The water cycle distributes fresh,clean water around the planet.It involves three stages.(1)Solar power lifts water into the atmosphere by evaporation.(2)Condensation of this purified water produces clouds.(3)Clouds in turn,form rain,hail,sleet,or snow,which falls to the ground,ready to evaporate again,thus completing the cycle.How much water is recycled annually?According to estimates,enough to cover the earths surface uniformly to a depth of more than two and a half feet.
The carbon and oxygen cycles:As you know,in order to live you needed to breathe,to take in oxygen and give out carbon dioxide.But with countless billions of humans and animals doing the same thing,Why does our atmosphere never run out of oxygen and become overloaded with carbon dioxide? The answer lies in the oxygen cycle.(1)In an amazing process called photosynthesis,plants take in the carbon dioxide that we exhale,using it and the energy from sunlight to produced carbohydrates and oxygen.(2)When we take in oxygen,we complete that cycle.All this production of vegetation and breathable air happens cleanly,efficiently,and quietly.
The nitrogen cycle:Life on earth also depends on the production of such organic molecules as proteins.(A)To produce those molecules, nitrogen is needed.Happily, that gas makes up about 78 percent of our atmosphere. Lightning converts nitrogen into compounds that plants can absorb.(B)Then plants incorporate this compounds into organic molecules. Animals that eat those plants thus also acquire nitrogen.(C)Finally,when plants and animals die,the nitrogen compounds in them are broken down by bacteria.That process of decay releases nitrogen back into the soil and atmosphere, completing the cycle.
Perfect recycling!
Humans, with all their advanced technology,create countless tons of unrecyclable toxic waste annually.Yet,the earth recycles all it's wastes perfectly,using ingenious chemical engineering.
How do you think the earths recycling systems arose? "If the earths ecosystem had truly evolved by chance alone,it wouldn't possibly have been able to reach such a perfect level of environmental harmony, "says religion and science writer M.A.Corey.Do you agree with his conclusion.
How would you reply?
*Do you feel that the earth's features are the product of purposeful design?if so,which of the above facts do you find most convincing?
*How would you respond to the claim that the earth is nothing special,just another setting where evolution could occur?
