Life Sustaining Water

It is no secret that water is a vital component of life.  The average human body is about 60-70% water (with the brain about 75% and the blood about 80% water).  It plays a vital role in nearly every bodily function (digestion, metabolism, nutrient absorption, chemical reactions, etc.).  Without water, the human being would not exist.

Similarly to the human body, the world in which we live is also dependent upon water.  As the most abundant chemical compound in the universe, water is uniquely suited for the task of being the solvent required for chemical reactions.  According to McDowell and Morrow, water has the following unusual physical characteristics that make it the perfect solvent for life:

• Water is unique in that it is denser as a liquid than as a solid.  This causes frozen water (ice) to float, insulating the water underneath from further heat loss and allowing underwater life to survive in harsh conditions.
• Water has unusually high melting and boiling points.  Thus, water helps moderate Earth’s climates and allows larger organisms to regulate their body temperatures.
• Water has unusually high surface tension, which enables it to provide better capillary action in trees.  This process allows trees to draw water up from its roots, seemingly against the force of gravity.  (102)

What is the point?  What does this special information about water prove? Again, McDowell and Morrow say, “If it wasn’t for carbon and water, no complex life could exist in the universe.  Evolution cannot account for these properties, for evolution is dependent upon their preexistence.  Long before Darwinian evolution could have occurred, the chemical elements for life were already in place” (102).

We would suggest that simply put: Design demands a designer.  Put in logical form, we would say:
1. Everything that exhibits purpose (designed to accomplish a goal) is the product of intelligent design.
2. The universe exhibits purpose (as demonstrated by the example of life-sustaining water above).
3. Therefore, the universe is the product of intelligent design. 

What is the best explanation for the universe being fine-tuned for life?  The answer is an Intelligent Mind, the all-powerful God.

Work Cited:

McDowell, Sean and Jonathan Morrow.  Is God Just a Human Invention? And Seventeen Other Questions Raised by the New Atheists.  Kregel: Grand Rapids, 2010.