# The Privileged Planet: Designed for Discovery with Jay Richards - Part 2

An episode of [Bible Answer Man Podcast with Hank Hanegraaff](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/569236334), 7 Jul 2026, 28 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/72840258/bam20260707.mp3

On today’s Bible Answer Man broadcast (07/07/26), we pick up where we ended on our previous broadcast and present more of an episode of the Hank Unplugged podcast. Hank is talking with Dr. Jay Richards, co-author of the 20th Anniversary Updated and Revised edition of The Privileged Planet: How Our Place in the Cosmos Is Designed for Discovery. Hank and Dr. Richards discuss why the Earth is the best place in the universe for discovery, why people like Neil deGrasse Tyson make the argument that the Earth is insignificant, how we can overcome the issue of information overload we are facing today, constrained optimization, and the role of solar eclipses in scientific discovery.

## Transcript

[0:07] Speaker 1: From the Christian Research Institute in Charlotte, North Carolina. This
[0:11] Speaker 1: is the Bible answer Man Broadcast with Hank Canagraph. We're
[0:15] Speaker 1: on the air because truth matters, Life matters. More on
[0:20] Speaker 1: today's special edition of The Bible answer Man. We pick
[0:23] Speaker 1: up where we ended on our previous broadcast and present
[0:27] Speaker 1: more of an episode of the Hank Unplugged podcast. Hank
[0:30] Speaker 1: is talking with philosopher Jay Richards, co author of the
[0:34] Speaker 1: twentieth anniversary updated and revised edition of The Privileged Planet.
[0:40] Speaker 1: How our place in the cosmos is designed for discovery.
[0:44] Speaker 1: Let's now join Hank Canagraph and Jay Richards in their conversation.
[0:49] Speaker 2: If all you wanted to do was discover the background radiation, okay, well,
[0:52] Speaker 2: the best place to detect that would be between galaxies,
[0:55] Speaker 2: probably intergalactic space. But you'd optimize your situation to this
[1:00] Speaker 2: over that one thing. That would be a terrible place
[1:03] Speaker 2: to discover the laws of gravity or what happened in
[1:05] Speaker 2: the recent past, or to do chemistry. And so what
[1:09] Speaker 2: you want is to optimize for all these kinds of
[1:12] Speaker 2: competing conditions. And when you get that, that's the argument
[1:16] Speaker 2: that in fact what you get is an earth like planet.
[1:18] Speaker 2: You get the planet that we have. We can't prove
[1:21] Speaker 2: that there aren't other Earth like planets in the universe.
[1:23] Speaker 2: We really don't have enough evidence one or the other.
[1:26] Speaker 2: But we can make a prediction that if we're right,
[1:29] Speaker 2: if there are other Earth like planets in the universe,
[1:31] Speaker 2: they will be very very very much like the Earth.
[1:34] Speaker 2: They will have moons and suns, very much like ours.
[1:37] Speaker 2: They'll have perfect solar eclipses like we enjoy. So that's
[1:41] Speaker 2: actually a prediction of our argument. We don't predict you'll
[1:44] Speaker 2: never find an Earth like planet. We say if you
[1:46] Speaker 2: find one, it will be very much like the Earth.
[1:49] Speaker 3: So I'd be an Earth twin.
[1:51] Speaker 2: Yeah, I'd be an Earth twin. In fact, Germo says,
[1:54] Speaker 2: if we ever get detector radio transmission, for instance, from
[1:57] Speaker 2: some other intelligent civilization, the first thing we should do
[2:01] Speaker 2: is send them digital copies of our best sellery clost pictures,
[2:05] Speaker 2: and as send us some of theirs.
[2:08] Speaker 3: I want to quote your favorite astrophysicist, Neil de grass Tyson,
[2:13] Speaker 3: who is an evangelist for our insignificance. You believe in
[2:17] Speaker 3: our significance. He believes in our insignificance, and he actually
[2:21] Speaker 3: says this, and you quote this in the book, every
[2:25] Speaker 3: advance in our knowledge of the cosmos has revealed that
[2:29] Speaker 3: we live on a cosmic speck of dust orbiting a
[2:35] Speaker 3: mediocre star in the far suburbs of a common sort
[2:40] Speaker 3: of galaxy, a common sort of galaxy among one hundred
[2:46] Speaker 3: billion galaxies in the universe. The news of our cosmic
[2:51] Speaker 3: unimportance triggers impressive defense mechanisms in the human psyche. So
[2:57] Speaker 3: he's basically talking about Copernican principle, the principle of mediocrity.
[3:04] Speaker 2: That's right. Yeah, And so Neil de grass Tyson is
[3:08] Speaker 2: the kind of our generation's current incarnation of Carl Sagan,
[3:12] Speaker 2: whom we of course also quote in the book. And
[3:14] Speaker 2: Carl Sagan, who's since deceased, was the science popularizer that
[3:19] Speaker 2: said this ifact. He wrote a book called Pale Blue
[3:21] Speaker 2: Dot in which he said, we don't hold a privileged
[3:23] Speaker 2: position in the universe. De grass Tyson says the same thing.
[3:26] Speaker 2: Of course, Notice the kind of evalue of judgments here.
[3:29] Speaker 2: So he says that we're in some unassuming suburb in
[3:32] Speaker 2: the galaxy. Well, okay, so the obvious question is where
[3:35] Speaker 2: would you want to be in the galaxy? Okay, So
[3:37] Speaker 2: we're a large spiral galaxy, which would call the Milky Way.
[3:41] Speaker 2: So where would be the best spot to be And
[3:45] Speaker 2: you say, okay, best for what? Well, how about best
[3:47] Speaker 2: for life? That's really the interesting thing, right we know that. Well,
[3:52] Speaker 2: the last place you'd want to be is the center
[3:53] Speaker 2: of the galaxy. It probably has a giant black hole.
[3:56] Speaker 2: There's all this X rank emma radiation, got stars popping
[4:00] Speaker 2: off and getting sucked in. It's the most hostile place
[4:02] Speaker 2: in the galaxy. If you're in the outer part of
[4:05] Speaker 2: the Solar System, it's mostly hydrogen helium. There's not even
[4:08] Speaker 2: enough sort of heavy materials to build Earth like planets.
[4:12] Speaker 2: If you're inside a spiral arm, you're gonna have that's
[4:15] Speaker 2: also much riskier because of star formation. Where you'd want
[4:19] Speaker 2: to be, as it turns out when you study all
[4:22] Speaker 2: the conditions for what you need in a galaxy. So
[4:24] Speaker 2: the so called galactic capital zone is midway out between
[4:29] Speaker 2: the center and the edge of the galaxy, between spiral
[4:31] Speaker 2: arms and rotating again about the same speed as the
[4:34] Speaker 2: spiral arms. Guess where we are. We're exactly there. We're
[4:38] Speaker 2: right in the sweet spot of the galactic capital zone.
[4:40] Speaker 2: And so for the thing you would be interested in
[4:44] Speaker 2: we're in prime location. It's only by you know, sort
[4:49] Speaker 2: of sleight of hand implying that, well, we're not in
[4:51] Speaker 2: the center of the galaxy or something that anyone could
[4:54] Speaker 2: be tricked by that. What does it mean for a
[4:56] Speaker 2: star to be ordinary? First all, it's not true most
[4:58] Speaker 2: of the stars of the galaxy or these red m
[5:01] Speaker 2: dwarf stars. Our star is quite stable. It's a single star,
[5:06] Speaker 2: so it's not a binary or triplet system. Again, for life,
[5:11] Speaker 2: this is exactly what you'd want, and so you just
[5:14] Speaker 2: add up. I mean, we could go through a list
[5:15] Speaker 2: of about thirty of these things, and the stuff that
[5:17] Speaker 2: he considers insignificant clearly or not. It's only by he's
[5:22] Speaker 2: sort of assuming the ignorance of his audience as to
[5:25] Speaker 2: the details, so that they'll just kind of get the
[5:27] Speaker 2: ambiance that, well, yeah, it is a big universe, and
[5:30] Speaker 2: we don't you know, it doesn't look like an interesting
[5:33] Speaker 2: place to be in the galaxy. And so it's really
[5:36] Speaker 2: a kind of surface level analysis, assuming that people are
[5:40] Speaker 2: just sort of stupefied by the size of the universe
[5:43] Speaker 2: or something like that. But again, notice that the folks
[5:47] Speaker 2: that say, well, we're insignificant because we're small relative to
[5:49] Speaker 2: the universe. They never do the opposite. They never say, well,
[5:52] Speaker 2: we're on the other hand, we're really significant compared to
[5:56] Speaker 2: the size of elementary particles quorks, right, I mean you
[5:59] Speaker 2: couldn't You could argue that, but Chris, physical size and significance,
[6:03] Speaker 2: they're just two different things. We're not going to answer
[6:05] Speaker 2: the question one way or the other with that, and
[6:08] Speaker 2: the details are going to be subtler. And if you know,
[6:11] Speaker 2: that's what I actually think. If the universe is created
[6:13] Speaker 2: by God, it is a book meant to be read,
[6:16] Speaker 2: expect it to be subtle so that people that are
[6:18] Speaker 2: open to the evidence, open to being able to read
[6:21] Speaker 2: it to understand its meeting, can detect that. But if
[6:24] Speaker 2: you want these kind of superficial stories like Neil de Grass,
[6:27] Speaker 2: Tyson tells, well, God gives you the freedom to be
[6:29] Speaker 2: able to believe those, but it really is a superficial treatment.
[6:33] Speaker 3: Yeah, And that really gets to a point that I
[6:35] Speaker 3: want to drive home if you would people like Tyson,
[6:40] Speaker 3: they make these dogmatic assertions, not defensible arguments, And I
[6:44] Speaker 3: think today people no longer think, they no longer ponder,
[6:50] Speaker 3: they no longer examine. We're hit by so much information
[6:55] Speaker 3: information overload that we can't process it, And I'm wondering,
[6:59] Speaker 3: even as the father of many children, how do you
[7:01] Speaker 3: inoculate people that really don't have an opportunity to think
[7:07] Speaker 3: through these things as you have. I mean, obviously this
[7:10] Speaker 3: is one of the reasons you wrote the book The
[7:12] Speaker 3: Privileged Planet. But not everybody will read a big book
[7:15] Speaker 3: like that. In fact, many people don't read anymore. How
[7:18] Speaker 3: do you inoculate people against these I mean, even in
[7:23] Speaker 3: the political realm, you hear these incredibly fabricated statements, but
[7:27] Speaker 3: they're just communicated as though they're common sense fact, and
[7:31] Speaker 3: people are getting the information so quickly they can't really
[7:35] Speaker 3: fact check it if you will, that's right.
[7:37] Speaker 2: I mean, this is the irony of our moment, Hank,
[7:39] Speaker 2: is that if you know how to do it, you
[7:42] Speaker 2: can get access to almost any information from your house.
[7:46] Speaker 2: But on the other hand, it's curated and manipulated, and
[7:50] Speaker 2: most of us have lost the ability to focus. I mean,
[7:53] Speaker 2: he said, how do you inoculate your children? You inoculate
[7:55] Speaker 2: your children by making sure that they I honestly think
[7:58] Speaker 2: you aren't exposed to a lot of this stuff, so
[8:00] Speaker 2: they're not exposed to the kind of fast movie technology
[8:03] Speaker 2: until the brains can handle it. You help them to
[8:06] Speaker 2: develop the attention span to be able to read and
[8:09] Speaker 2: study and ponder great texts.
[8:11] Speaker 3: What does that mean? Does that mean, Jay, you take
[8:14] Speaker 3: the smartphones out of their hands.
[8:16] Speaker 2: Yeah, it means that if they're a little kid, you
[8:18] Speaker 2: do not give them access to smartphones. Absolutely. I mean,
[8:21] Speaker 2: you know, maybe fifteen years ago, I hadn't thought that
[8:24] Speaker 2: much about this because you know, they had just come ALIGNE.
[8:27] Speaker 2: But I'm really glad that. You know, smartphones were first
[8:30] Speaker 2: of all, expensive and not really available when our girls
[8:33] Speaker 2: were little anyway, and so they got through that. But
[8:35] Speaker 2: I've now seen what happens when kids, really young kids
[8:38] Speaker 2: are given screens way too early. And I'm not no
[8:43] Speaker 2: one can accuse me of being a luddite, but this
[8:45] Speaker 2: technology is designed kind of it's for images and short
[8:49] Speaker 2: attention spans for most people, and that's it's quite clear
[8:52] Speaker 2: that people's capacity for attention is diminishing, and this is
[8:57] Speaker 2: the difficulty. So how do you inoculate people in general
[9:00] Speaker 2: that are subject to that to these bad ideas? Well?
[9:04] Speaker 2: You have to reach them in different ways. You do
[9:06] Speaker 2: it on podcasts, for instance, or you do it in
[9:09] Speaker 2: documentary style format, and so you hope that you can
[9:12] Speaker 2: point people to the source, which is the big book
[9:15] Speaker 2: with one hundred pages of references. But I always try
[9:20] Speaker 2: to remind myself that most people are going to read
[9:22] Speaker 2: the headline and hear the summary, and so I've got
[9:24] Speaker 2: to figure out how to boil this down. I can
[9:26] Speaker 2: tell you this is always The difficulty with this book is,
[9:28] Speaker 2: first of all, there's a lot of data. It's a
[9:30] Speaker 2: cumulative case argument, and also it takes a couple of
[9:33] Speaker 2: steps to explain it. Because it was just Earth's unique
[9:37] Speaker 2: and rare and therefore God designed it. That'd be really simple.
[9:40] Speaker 2: But it's a little more complicated than that. But I
[9:42] Speaker 2: also think it's much more satisfying once you get what's
[9:44] Speaker 2: going on. And that's the difficulty. So first optimize how
[9:48] Speaker 2: you're going to inoculate your kids by giving the capacity
[9:51] Speaker 2: for attention. But then just as God condescends to us
[9:55] Speaker 2: and our capacities, we have to do that for you know,
[9:58] Speaker 2: our fellow human beings, so that we communicated kind of
[10:02] Speaker 2: different levels and in different paces and boil the stuff
[10:05] Speaker 2: down in different ways.
[10:06] Speaker 3: You use the word optimized. This is a word you
[10:09] Speaker 3: use in your book when you talk about constrained optimization.
[10:12] Speaker 3: I think that's a really interesting subject.
[10:15] Speaker 2: It is. And so this is that we actually get
[10:17] Speaker 2: the term from engineering, and every engineer knows this that
[10:20] Speaker 2: you don't optimize anything. You're building for everything. So we
[10:25] Speaker 2: use the example of a laptop, for instance. And so
[10:27] Speaker 2: if you said, okay, what's the best laptop, he said, well,
[10:30] Speaker 2: let's see, it would be the laptop with the biggest screen. Really, okay,
[10:34] Speaker 2: so how big ten feet square feet? Well, of course
[10:38] Speaker 2: not because it's not portable, right, And so you say, well, okay,
[10:41] Speaker 2: the one with the fastest process are available. Really, that's
[10:45] Speaker 2: going to cost several million dollars. And by the way,
[10:47] Speaker 2: it's going to be really unstable. Okay, that's not going
[10:50] Speaker 2: to be quite right.
[10:51] Speaker 1: Don't go away. In just a few moments we'll rejoin
[10:54] Speaker 1: Hank Hatagraphs conversation with doctor J.
[10:57] Speaker 2: Richards.
[10:58] Speaker 1: Only an Intelligent Design accounts for the rare and finely
[11:02] Speaker 1: tuned deray of factors that make Earth suitable for complex
[11:07] Speaker 1: life and for scientific discovery. You'll find the remarkable case
[11:11] Speaker 1: set forth in detail by astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez and philosopher J.
[11:16] Speaker 1: Richards and the twentieth Anniversary Revised an updated edition of
[11:21] Speaker 1: The Privileged Planet, how Our Place in the Cosmos is
[11:24] Speaker 1: designed for discovery. To receive the twentieth anniversary revised and
[11:29] Speaker 1: updated edition of The Privileged Planet, How Our Place in
[11:33] Speaker 1: the Cosmos is Designed for discovery. For your gift to
[11:36] Speaker 1: the ongoing work of the Christian Research Institute, call eight
[11:40] Speaker 1: eight eight seven thousand CRII.
[11:44] Speaker 2: That's eight eight eight.
[11:45] Speaker 1: Seven thousand CRII, or go online to equip dot org.
[11:51] Speaker 1: That's equip dot org. The Complete Bible answer Book Collector's
[12:03] Speaker 1: Edition is the comprehensive collection of the most often asked
[12:06] Speaker 1: questions Hank Hannigraph has received throughout his four decades as
[12:10] Speaker 1: host of the Bible answer Man broadcast. With more than
[12:13] Speaker 1: half a million copies already in print, this newly revised
[12:17] Speaker 1: and expanded Collector's Edition helped seekers and skeptics alike sort
[12:22] Speaker 1: through the truth on topics such as reliability of the Bible,
[12:26] Speaker 1: religions and cults, the resurrection and afterlife, and many more
[12:30] Speaker 1: issues vital to a better understanding of God in Christ
[12:34] Speaker 1: and our relationship to Him. To receive your copy of
[12:38] Speaker 1: the Complete Bible answer Book Collector's Edition, Revised and expanded
[12:42] Speaker 1: call eight eight eight seven thousand CRII and make a
[12:46] Speaker 1: gift to support the Christian Research Institute's life changing outreaches
[12:51] Speaker 1: eight eight eight seven thousand CRII or visit us at
[12:55] Speaker 1: equip dot org. Bertrand Russell famously said most people would
[13:04] Speaker 1: rather die than think, and many of them do not
[13:08] Speaker 1: so with CRI Support Team members. Support Team members are
[13:12] Speaker 1: not only serious thinkers, but their membership and CRI's Support
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[13:23] Speaker 3: Are you not a.
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[14:01] Speaker 4: Hank Hanigraph has dedicated his life to defending truth because
[14:04] Speaker 4: truth matters. Yet an encounter with Christians in the underground
[14:08] Speaker 4: Church of China left Hanograph contemplating his Christian experience. They
[14:12] Speaker 4: were experiencing something beyond truth. They were experiencing life. Truth Matters,
[14:18] Speaker 4: Life Matters More by Hank hanigraph is two books in one,
[14:21] Speaker 4: Because Truth Matters, Part one equips Christians to defend the
[14:24] Speaker 4: essential truths of the historic Christian faith. In Part two,
[14:28] Speaker 4: Hank explains why life matters More and how we can
[14:31] Speaker 4: experience the height of human existence union with God. Prepare
[14:35] Speaker 4: to move past intellectually knowing about God to experientially knowing
[14:39] Speaker 4: God in Christ. To receive your copy of Truth Matters,
[14:43] Speaker 4: Life Matters More, the unexpected beauty of an authentic Christian
[14:46] Speaker 4: life called eight eight eight seven thousand CRI, and make
[14:49] Speaker 4: a gift to support the Christian Research Institutes Life Changing
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[15:07] Speaker 1: Let's rejoin Bible answer Man host Hank Canagraph and his
[15:10] Speaker 1: guest philosopher Jay Richards. In their conversation.
[15:14] Speaker 2: What's the best laptop, he said, well, let's see, it
[15:18] Speaker 2: would be the laptop with the biggest screen. Really, okay,
[15:21] Speaker 2: so how big ten square feet? Well, of course not
[15:24] Speaker 2: because it's not portable, right, And so you say, well, okay,
[15:28] Speaker 2: the one with the fastest process are available. Really, that's
[15:31] Speaker 2: going to cost several million dollars and by the way,
[15:33] Speaker 2: it's going to be really unstable. Okay, that's not going
[15:36] Speaker 2: to be quite right. Yeah, how about weight, because if
[15:38] Speaker 2: you want a big processor, it's going to be heavier
[15:40] Speaker 2: and hotter and use a lot more battery power. You
[15:42] Speaker 2: can see where this is going. Of course, the best
[15:45] Speaker 2: laptop is going to be the one that best optimizes
[15:48] Speaker 2: all these competing conditions into this kind of sweet spot.
[15:51] Speaker 2: And that's what If you're designing a bridge, it's the
[15:53] Speaker 2: same thing. You're designing it for stability over time, but
[15:57] Speaker 2: you have to meet costs, you have to use the
[15:59] Speaker 2: materials are available. It's that kind of thing, and so
[16:02] Speaker 2: people have to think of that. Okay, Now, if you're
[16:04] Speaker 2: building a planet in which you're going to have all
[16:06] Speaker 2: these different typical elements, and you have sources of energy
[16:09] Speaker 2: that are important from the sun but also deadly right,
[16:13] Speaker 2: you can sort of imagine God, the great engineer, creating
[16:16] Speaker 2: a material universe. They're going to be the even God
[16:19] Speaker 2: is going to have to make these kind of logical
[16:21] Speaker 2: trade offs. But on the other hand, if the universe
[16:24] Speaker 2: is designed for discovery, what we would find is that
[16:27] Speaker 2: these best places that meet the conditions for life are
[16:30] Speaker 2: also going to be the best places overall, the same
[16:33] Speaker 2: way that kind the best laptop overall for scientific discovery,
[16:37] Speaker 2: that is, for making different kinds of discoveries that on
[16:40] Speaker 2: their own require kind of a different set of conditions.
[16:43] Speaker 2: And so you're trying to solve this very complex problem.
[16:47] Speaker 3: An omniscient God would never make the mistake of creating
[16:52] Speaker 3: the human eye. I've heard that argument, because there are
[16:54] Speaker 3: problems with the human eye. But this again goes to
[16:57] Speaker 3: your point of constrained optimization.
[16:59] Speaker 2: Absolutely, And of course this is a story that we
[17:01] Speaker 2: all heard for the longest time, that the human eye
[17:03] Speaker 2: is wired backwards, so there's this hole in it, and
[17:06] Speaker 2: the ideas. Richard Dawkins loves these arguments that, well, you know,
[17:09] Speaker 2: God wouldn't have done anything this way, which is always interesting.
[17:12] Speaker 2: The atheists know how God would have done things, but
[17:15] Speaker 2: they're to still man their argument. It's that it looks
[17:18] Speaker 2: like it's poorly engineered, and in every case you just
[17:21] Speaker 2: have kind of have to look at the details. And
[17:23] Speaker 2: in that case, knowledgeable people have quit using that argument
[17:26] Speaker 2: because it turns out there is a really important functional
[17:28] Speaker 2: reason for it to be wired that way, and in fact,
[17:31] Speaker 2: the so called whole in our visual system is compensated
[17:34] Speaker 2: for in other ways, so that doesn't actually mess up
[17:37] Speaker 2: our vision. Now, of course, the world has fallen, so
[17:40] Speaker 2: we can't always expect things are exactly the way God
[17:43] Speaker 2: designed them originally. Nevertheless, so many of these arguments fall
[17:48] Speaker 2: apart on closer inspection that I'm generally I just usually
[17:51] Speaker 2: treat the prior probability of these claims as pretty low,
[17:56] Speaker 2: a very low chance of it being true. But you
[17:58] Speaker 2: still got to look at the details.
[18:00] Speaker 3: Yeah, let's talk about one of the things you write
[18:02] Speaker 3: about in the book, and that solar eclipses. On the
[18:05] Speaker 3: one hand, they're beautiful and they're inspiring. On the other hand,
[18:09] Speaker 3: as you point out, they've played a very significant role
[18:14] Speaker 3: in scientific discovery.
[18:16] Speaker 2: That's right, And people wonder that's how we open the book.
[18:19] Speaker 2: It's actually the idea of eclipses is what gave us
[18:22] Speaker 2: the idea for the argument. And so just explain to
[18:25] Speaker 2: people that maybe didn't see the eclipse or haven't thought
[18:27] Speaker 2: about it, is that to get a perfect eclipse like
[18:29] Speaker 2: we have on the Earth, you need, first of all,
[18:32] Speaker 2: that you need a sort of platform that you're on.
[18:35] Speaker 2: You need occulting or eclipsing body like the Moon. You
[18:38] Speaker 2: need a light source, which is the Sun, and then
[18:40] Speaker 2: you need them all line up in space in a
[18:42] Speaker 2: straight line. And then if they're going to have a
[18:44] Speaker 2: perfect eclipse, they need to appear the same size and
[18:47] Speaker 2: shape from your vantage point, which is what we have, right.
[18:51] Speaker 2: That's something that we take for granted, but we really shouldn't.
[18:54] Speaker 2: And so as it happens from the Earth, the Moon
[18:57] Speaker 2: is four hundred times closer than the Sun. It's also
[19:00] Speaker 2: four hundred times smaller than the Sun, and so you
[19:02] Speaker 2: get this very eerie match between the Sun and the Moon,
[19:06] Speaker 2: so that we get these perfect eclipses where you get
[19:09] Speaker 2: this kind of blackness in the sky. Garma and I
[19:12] Speaker 2: saw it this April from Waksahatchie, Texas, right in the
[19:16] Speaker 2: center of the path of fatality. It was about four
[19:18] Speaker 2: and a half minutes. You know, you cannot look at
[19:21] Speaker 2: the Sun with the naked eye, even if there's a
[19:22] Speaker 2: slight bit of the bright photosphere available. But as soon
[19:26] Speaker 2: as the disc of the Moon covers the Sun, you
[19:28] Speaker 2: can look at You can look at it directly. It's
[19:30] Speaker 2: like a black pupil with an iris in the sky.
[19:34] Speaker 2: It's absolutely magnificent. And so the question is, okay, well
[19:38] Speaker 2: that's neat, But what does that have to do with
[19:40] Speaker 2: your argument. Well, two of the important things you need
[19:43] Speaker 2: to build a habitable planet. The one big one is
[19:46] Speaker 2: the distance from your host star. So you need to
[19:49] Speaker 2: be where it's not too hot and not too cold,
[19:51] Speaker 2: so called Goldilock zone. So if you're in the Goldilock zone,
[19:53] Speaker 2: that's going to fix the size of the star in
[19:56] Speaker 2: your sky right our sun. A thing you need is
[20:00] Speaker 2: a large, well placed moon to stabilize the tilt of
[20:04] Speaker 2: your planet's axis and to contribute to the tides. And
[20:07] Speaker 2: when you get those two things that are needed for
[20:11] Speaker 2: life to build, two important ingredients for making your plane
[20:14] Speaker 2: in habitable, it sets up the conditions for perfect silar
[20:17] Speaker 2: eclipses and perfect silar eclipses, as you mentioned a minute ago,
[20:21] Speaker 2: are this natural experiment that have allowed us to discover
[20:25] Speaker 2: things about the universe that we would have had a
[20:27] Speaker 2: very hard time discovering otherwise. Let me just give you
[20:30] Speaker 2: one kind of the most intuitive example would be the
[20:34] Speaker 2: test for Einstein's general theory of relativity. So Einstein, when
[20:39] Speaker 2: he developed a special in general theory. A prediction of
[20:42] Speaker 2: his theory. It's fairly arcane for people don't study it,
[20:45] Speaker 2: but was that there's a thing called space time and
[20:48] Speaker 2: massive objects. It's not like gravity is a force of
[20:52] Speaker 2: pulling force. What happens is that space time gets bent
[20:57] Speaker 2: by massive bodies and then and that affects the kind
[21:01] Speaker 2: of movement of things around it, and so a prediction
[21:04] Speaker 2: of his theory. So well, So if this is right,
[21:07] Speaker 2: as opposed to say, the Newtonian view of gravity, then
[21:11] Speaker 2: what would happen is that when a kind of directional
[21:15] Speaker 2: light passes near the edge of a massive body, it
[21:20] Speaker 2: would appear to move from where you would expect it
[21:22] Speaker 2: to be. So, for instance, if you were to look
[21:24] Speaker 2: at the sun, or you look at the night sky
[21:26] Speaker 2: and you map where the stars are when the sun's
[21:29] Speaker 2: not there, and then you come back later when the
[21:31] Speaker 2: sun is there and you look at stars that are
[21:33] Speaker 2: those same stars passing right near the edge of the Sun.
[21:36] Speaker 2: It will look like they've moved because the light the
[21:39] Speaker 2: starlight passing near the edge of the Sun will be curved,
[21:42] Speaker 2: will be bent by the mass of the Sun. Of course,
[21:45] Speaker 2: you can't do that normally because you can't see the
[21:48] Speaker 2: starlight near the edge of the Sun except during a
[21:51] Speaker 2: perfect story eclipse, and that is exactly what happened during
[21:54] Speaker 2: the eclipse of twenty or nineteen nineteen. Sir Arthur Eddington,
[21:58] Speaker 2: a couple of teams test did this and confirmed Einstein's theory,
[22:03] Speaker 2: and astronomers have continued to do that and to refine
[22:06] Speaker 2: it since then. So really the most important theory of
[22:09] Speaker 2: the twentieth century that we was, at least the most
[22:11] Speaker 2: important for understanding the universe as a whole, was tested
[22:15] Speaker 2: and was able to be tested because of a perfect
[22:17] Speaker 2: solar eclipse. And there are a bunch of other examples,
[22:20] Speaker 2: but eclipses. Every astronomer knows how important eclipses have been
[22:25] Speaker 2: for scientific discovery, and so it's sort of staggering to
[22:30] Speaker 2: realize that, Gosh, we enjoy these things, these amazing things,
[22:36] Speaker 2: because of the needs for life, and when you get
[22:40] Speaker 2: those God is God. I think has set this up
[22:43] Speaker 2: so that we also get access to the universe that
[22:47] Speaker 2: we would not have otherwise.
[22:49] Speaker 3: You know, in some sense, reading the Privileged Planet twenty
[22:52] Speaker 3: years ago changed the way I look at the world.
[22:55] Speaker 3: You look in the daytime at the sun, Yes, well
[22:58] Speaker 3: there's the sun. Look at night at the moon, you know,
[23:01] Speaker 3: a half moon maybe his quote you look at it,
[23:05] Speaker 3: so what sun moon? But when you start to see
[23:10] Speaker 3: the things like solar eclipses, well you just mentioned the
[23:13] Speaker 3: ratio of size between sun and moon. Then all of
[23:16] Speaker 3: a sudden you recognize the words of scripture being impactful
[23:20] Speaker 3: and true. The heavens declare the glory of God. The
[23:23] Speaker 3: skies proclaimed the work of his hands. Day after day,
[23:26] Speaker 3: they pour forth speech, night after night. They proclaim knowledge.
[23:29] Speaker 3: There's no speech or language where their voices not heard.
[23:32] Speaker 3: Their words go out to the ends of the earth.
[23:33] Speaker 3: So you start looking at the universe differently. And I
[23:36] Speaker 3: think that's one of the great advantages of this book.
[23:39] Speaker 3: I mean, it intoxicates you with the beauty and the
[23:44] Speaker 3: glory of God's created handiwork things that you might never
[23:48] Speaker 3: otherwise pay any attention to.
[23:51] Speaker 2: Absolutely, I mean people and so eclipses for the lucky
[23:55] Speaker 2: people that are in the path of all during their life.
[23:58] Speaker 2: Of course, it's been happening for thousands of years and
[24:01] Speaker 2: humans have been astonished by them the entire time, But
[24:04] Speaker 2: sort of understanding about what's required to set it up
[24:07] Speaker 2: in the way in which it connects to the needs
[24:09] Speaker 2: for habitability, and discovery. These are all fairly recent discoveries.
[24:14] Speaker 2: That's what's sort of amazing is that people have the
[24:17] Speaker 2: Christians often have the impression that, well, science is overwhelmingly
[24:20] Speaker 2: a hostile to faith, and this is kind of the
[24:23] Speaker 2: worst time to be alive for being a Christian. Well,
[24:26] Speaker 2: in a sense, it's tough, but in another sense, it's
[24:28] Speaker 2: probably the best time. I mean, it was only in
[24:31] Speaker 2: the twentieth century that we had really good empirical evidence
[24:34] Speaker 2: that the universe had a beginning. Before then we believed
[24:38] Speaker 2: it on faith, and maybe there was some philosophical arguments
[24:40] Speaker 2: for the impossibility of infinite regress. But to realize that no,
[24:45] Speaker 2: in fact, the best evidence from the natural world tells
[24:49] Speaker 2: us the universe had a beginning in the finite past.
[24:51] Speaker 2: Christians spend our time arguing about how old it is,
[24:54] Speaker 2: and don't notice that if it's old, if it's any age.
[24:58] Speaker 2: That makes life very hard for the materialist, because no
[25:02] Speaker 2: longer can the material universe be the ultimate reality because
[25:05] Speaker 2: it had a beginning. That's the era in which we live.
[25:08] Speaker 2: And so I honestly think in some ways God left
[25:11] Speaker 2: it to this time for the created order to disclose
[25:16] Speaker 2: these things about it the Psalmist from the beginning. Of course,
[25:19] Speaker 2: the Psalmists you said, he said, the heavens declared the
[25:21] Speaker 2: glory of God. So it's actively participating in the glory
[25:24] Speaker 2: of God. But there's rich detail and more detail all
[25:29] Speaker 2: the way down. It's like wheels within wheels are an
[25:31] Speaker 2: encrypted message in which there's one message at one level,
[25:34] Speaker 2: and then you magnify it and you find another message.
[25:37] Speaker 2: That's what I think is happening.
[25:38] Speaker 1: We'll have to stop here for today's special edition of
[25:41] Speaker 1: the Bible answer Man Broadcast. Join us again next time
[25:45] Speaker 1: when we'll continue Hank Hannagraft's conversation with philosopher Jay Richards.
[25:50] Speaker 1: Our firm commitment here at the Christian Research Institute is
[25:54] Speaker 1: to defend the faith once for all, delivered to the Saints,
[25:58] Speaker 1: and equip believers to become true disciples of Jesus Christ.
[26:02] Speaker 1: In appreciation for your vital gift to help strengthen and
[26:06] Speaker 1: expand CRI's mind shaping, life changing outreaches, Hank would like
[26:11] Speaker 1: to send you the twentieth anniversary revised and updated edition
[26:15] Speaker 1: of The Privileged Planet. How our place in the Cosmos
[26:18] Speaker 1: is designed for discovery. Just call a resource consultant at
[26:22] Speaker 1: eight eight eight seven thousand CRII eight eight eight seven
[26:27] Speaker 1: thousand CROI, or visit our website at equip dot org,
[26:33] Speaker 1: dot's equip DOTRG, or you can write to CRI at
[26:38] Speaker 1: Post Office Box eighty five hundred, Charlotte, North Carolina, zip
[26:42] Speaker 1: code two eight two seven one. The Bible Answerman Broadcast
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[26:50] Speaker 1: because truth matters, life matters more. The Complete Bible answer
[27:02] Speaker 1: Book Collector's Edition is the comprehensive collection of the most
[27:05] Speaker 1: often asked questions Hank Hannigraph has received throughout his four
[27:10] Speaker 1: decades as host of The Bible answer Man Broadcast. With
[27:13] Speaker 1: more than half a million copies already in print, this
[27:16] Speaker 1: newly revised and expanded Collector's Edition helped seekers and skeptics
[27:21] Speaker 1: alike sort through the truth on topics such as reliability
[27:25] Speaker 1: of the Bible, religions and cults, the resurrection and afterlife,
[27:29] Speaker 1: and many more issues vital to a better understanding of
[27:33] Speaker 1: God in Christ and our relationship to Him. To receive
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