Solar Eclipse

Does a solar eclipse provide evidence of intelligent design? That is what first got astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez thinking as he watched a total eclipse in India in 1995. In order to have a solar eclipse, you need to have an object come in front of the sun. Essentially you could watch a partial solar eclipse on every planet in our solar system that has a moon. But Earth is the only planet where a total solar eclipse can be seen.

As I point out in my book, A Biblical Point of View on Intelligent Design, the unique experience of a solar eclipse on planet earth appears to be more than just coincidence. There are a number of reasons why only the Earth can have a total solar eclipse. Our moon is 1/400th the size of the sun, and the sun is 400 times farther away from Earth than the moon. Therefore, when the moon comes between the sun and the Earth, a small area of the Earth experiences a total solar eclipse in which the sun is fully blocked out by the moon.

The scientific benefit of a total solar eclipse is significant. Because the moon blocks out the sun, scientists have the ability to see and measure the sun's corona. Normally the sun is too bright for us to see the corona, but a total solar eclipse allows scientists to measure the light spectrum of the corona. Much of what we now know about stars comes from this measurement.

The fact that our Earth experiences a total eclipse of the sun makes our planet unique in the solar system, probably unique among many other solar systems. Add to this many other factors such as the fact that our moon is the right size, shape, and orbit for human life. Those are just a few reasons why many scientists see intelligent design in our moon and even in a solar eclipse. I'm Kerby Anderson, and that's my point of view.