Terrestrial Mediocrity?

If E. T. were to phone home, now that he could use a smartphone not available to Steven Spielberg in 1982, where would he call? A new book called The Copernicus Complex, states all the usual arguments for life having evolved on other planets. But it offers an unintentional kudo for creationists. Enter the “principle of mediocrity.” According to a review in The Wall Street Journal, this principle says that “we live on an ordinary planet, orbiting an ordinary star, in an ordinary galaxy.” In other words, life on this planet isn’t such an evolutionary big deal. But Complex actually claims that conclusion is too exaggerated. Earth is quite extraordinary when compared to the rest of the universe.

 The book seeks to prove that our earth, in the order of things, is incredibly unusual. Elsewhere in the universe, chaotic disorder is common; in our galaxy there are more circular orbits that have left earth relatively undisturbed for billions of years. In fact, about 97% of other planetary systems don’t allow for the conditions that might lead to life. Our galaxy is in the 2% where life might be possible.  As Hebrews 11:3 says (KJV), “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God.” No chaos, no elliptical orbits, no disorder. Life formed by God in the only place it could have happened, here on the planet, by the creative hand of God.