In order to glimpse the intelligent design behind life on Earth, I might envision my travels to another planet perfectly suited to me. Imagine I'm exploring NASA's headquarters in Houston and I get in a spaceship pre-programmed to go to Planet Laura at the push of a bright green button. I push the button, and after an exhilarating high-speed ride, I arrive at the most beautiful place imaginable to me. The sun is shining, the temperature is 85 degrees, and the water is the clearest sparkling blue I've ever seen. There are bright, colorful fish, dolphins, and otters waiting to play with me, but not a single jellyfish, snake, or strip of seaweed anywhere.

On the white, sandy beach that stretches indefinitely along the shore, I see a speed boat, a few paddle boards, two hybrid-powered bicycles, and several brightly-colored kayaks in front of an adorable, white, antebellum mansion with a huge, low-cut, green lawn and a little sign that says "Hypoallergenic Grass". As I get closer to the house, I see an enormous wooden deck containing a giant swimming pool with lanes marked off for swimming laps, outdoor furniture for reading in the sun, and my very own already-trained lab/husky puppy excitedly waiting to greet me. On the deck next to the pool are 12 children, all very anxious to learn apologetics, sitting in a circle and waiting for me to come teach them as part of their preparation to be the world’s next leading scientists, economists, professors, parents, judges, and business owners.

I go inside the house and find a kitchen filled with the ingredients to make all of my favorite gluten-free meals, and just as I wonder how these ingredients are going to turn into meals, I am greeted by the world’s most patient chef who enjoys preparing only the meals that I love most, including gluten-free pizza, Chicken Parmesan with spaghetti, and flourless chocolate cake. Even more wonderfully, there are huge cupboards of meal replacement drinks that eliminate the need to ever eat again, either for health or fitness. My chef will only cook when I want to eat, and all of my nutrients will be forevermore available in a 12-ounce drink.

In the bedroom, there is a huge walk-in closet filled with conservative but colorful bathing suits, shorts, and shirts; stunning dresses that show off my best features; and lots of beautiful tops, perfect for doing podcasts from my new planet — all in my exact size! Across from the king-sized bed hangs a flat screen television with a DVD player and a shelf filled with apologetics DVDs by Stephen C. Meyer, J. Warner Wallace, Frank Turek, Hugh Ross, Lee Strobel, and Greg Koukl, as well as a streaming feature that contains every William Lane Craig debate and David Wood video ever recorded.

Across the hall I find a study, which has a huge desk and two recliner chairs surrounded by enormous, built-in bookshelves containing thousands of books, including every book ever written by Wayne Grudem, Nancy Pearcey, Thomas Sowell, Jay Richards, and William Lane Craig, and every book from my Amazon wish list. On the desk is a cute pair of glasses with purple rims filled by glass with a prescription of +0, so I can look smart wearing them and yet see perfectly without the distraction of adjusted lenses.

Down the hall, in yet another large room, my favorite choral singers are singing the most gorgeous, soul-stirring, theologically-accurate music ever written, and there is only one empty seat, in the soprano section right next to my all-time favorite singing buddy, Elizabeth Lamback. And though I can't wait to join them, I peek out into the backyard and I see all of my closest friends from every season of my life, sharing memories, laughing, discussing theology, and speculating as to what the New Earth will be like.1

In this scenario, would it make any sense to say, "What a coincidence! The blind, mindless laws of nature really came together nicely this time!"? NO! I would say, "Who arranged this for me?!" And yet in our actual environment, the precise factors suited specifically to our needs are indescribably more complex, exceedingly more numerous, and immensely more critical to our lives on Earth. Here are just a few:2

· If the centrifugal force of planetary movements did not precisely balance the gravitational forces, nothing could be held in orbit around the sun

· If the universe had expanded at a rate one millionth more slowly than it did, the universe would have collapsed on itself; any faster, and no galaxies would have formed

· If the thickness of the Earth's crust were greater, too much oxygen would be transferred to the crust to support life; if thinner, volcanic and tectonic activity would make life impossible

· If the 23-degree axial tilt of the Earth were altered slightly, surface temperatures would be too extreme for life

· If Earth's rotation took more than 24 hours, temperature differences would be too great between night & day; if less time, atmospheric wind velocities would be too great

· If there were more seismic activity, a lot more life would be lost; if less, nutrients on the ocean floors and in river runoff would not be cycled back to the continents through tectonic uplift (yes, even earthquakes are necessary for life!)

· If rates of lightning were greater, there would be too much fire destruction; if less, there would be too little nitrogen fixing in the soil

· If water vapor levels in the atmosphere were greater, a runaway greenhouse effect would cause temperatures to rise too high for human life; if less, an insufficient greenhouse effect would make Earth too cold for human life

· If the gravitational force were altered by 0.00000000000000000000000000000000000001 percent, our sun would not exist

· If Jupiter's gravitational field did not act as a vacuum cleaner to attract asteroids and comets, Earth would be bombarded with these fatal objects

· If the ratio of the gravitational force to the electromagnetic force were altered by less than one part in 1040 (one in ten thousand trillion trillion trillion), life would not exist

There are more than 150 such factors known so far, which, if any different, would render life impossible for us.3 According to astrophysicist Hugh Ross, the odds that any planet in the universe would possess the necessary conditions to support intelligent physical life is less than one in 10 to the 173rd power, raised to the sixth power—that is one chance in one with 1,038 zeros after it! As Hugh Ross has stated, this is a number so large that it might as well be infinity.4

The more that is discovered about the universe, the more evident it is that our universe was designed on purpose with human life in mind. Every design, every purpose, and every mind proceeds from an intelligent being. The complexity of design in the universe most assuredly points to a magnificently intelligent and powerful Designer.

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1 The concept for this post is borrowed from Greg Koukl, Ambassadors Basic Curriculum, Course 3, "Why I'm Not an Evolutionist"

2 I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist, chapter 4, by Norman Geisler and Frank Turek

3 "Anthropic Principle: A Precise Plan for Humanity" by Hugh Ross at www.reasons.org

4 Ibid.