Where Are You, Goldilocks?

Isaiah 45:18
For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.

Secular astronomers have defined a region around each star as the Circumstellar Habitable Zone. It is in this zone that it is assumed that life as we know it, Jim, could exist. The closer a planet is to its star, the higher its average temperature would be, unless there are other factors (like the runaway Greenhouse Effect on Venus). On planet Earth, life depends on liquid water, but the liquid phase of water actually has quite a narrow temperature range, compared to many other liquid phases – just 100 degrees on the Celsius scale, or 180 degrees on the Fahrenheit scale. If the planet is too close to its star, all the water will be steam, but if it is too far away, all the water will be ice. In fact, there is only a narrow circular band where water would be in the liquid phase, and this is the Circumstellar Habitable Zone, or CHZ – not too cold and not too hot! The CHZ is often popularly called the Goldilocks Zone, after the little girl in the nursery rhyme, who, when trying the porridge belonging to the bears, found one bowl too hot, and one bowl too cold, but the other bowl just right.

It is assumed, then, that water could exist mostly as a liquid in the Goldilocks Zone, and that, therefore, life similar to that on the Earth could evolve. Astute listeners will realize that this is all highly presuppositional. God, who decreed that it is the Earth that is inhabited, does not appear to have placed life anywhere else. No amount of water of the right temperature can cause to appear what only God can create.

Prayer:
Thank You, Lord, for making this world just right for us to live in. Thank You for the gift of water, which quenches our thirst, and revives our bodies. Thank You especially for the Living Water, which Jesus provides. Amen.

Notes:
Habitable Zones, , retrieved 02/22/2017
Image: NASA, Public Domain