A watery world

A recent scientific paper challenges widely believed ideas about water on our planet. Although the study by secular scientists assumes a naturalistic beginning to Earth, it nevertheless suggests what the Bible has said all along: Water covered our planet from the very beginning.

Most modern scientists believe the newly formed Earth was dry because the intense heat of the inner solar system would have evaporated any moisture. They hypothesize that comets or asteroids delivered water from the cooler, outer solar system beyond Jupiter long after the rocky Earth came into existence.

But in a study published recently in Science, researchers found a type of meteorite called enstatite chondrites existed in the inner solar system when Earth formed. They contained enough hydrogen to produce at least three times the amount of water in Earth’s oceans. The researchers suggested that hydrogen combined with oxygen to generate water on Earth.

“It’s in perfect alignment with what the Scripture says, that in the beginning, God created the heavens and the Earth, the Earth was formless and the spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters,” said Jeff Zweerink, an astrophysicist and research scholar at Reasons to Believe. He noted God separated the waters on the second day of creation, creating a stable water cycle and liquid oceans.

By analyzing pristine enstatite chondrites that remained unaltered, the researchers also discovered they contained oxygen, titanium, calcium, hydrogen, and nitrogen in similar proportions to the composition of Earth. This suggests these meteorites existed when the planet came into being. They might also have contributed to the large amount of nitrogen in our atmosphere. Enstatite chondrite encounters today are rare, making up only about 2 percent of known meteorite collections.

“As science has progressed, we have a much better picture of how the early Earth worked, and as we have gotten that more complete picture we see it aligns with the way Scripture describes things,” Zweerick said. “To me, that is great evidence that God is who He says He is.”