For by him were all things created,
that are in heaven, and that are in earth,
visible and invisible,...
Colossians 1:16
"Atoms are mostly empty space with a nucleus containing the proton and neutrons, surrounded by a cloud of circling electrons, all in precise orbits around the nucleus. Protons have a positive electrical charge, electrons a negative electrical charge, and neutrons no electric charge. Why don’t the positive protons attract the negative electrons, and pow! – they would neutralize each other and create a neutron?
This does not happen because for some reason the electrons endlessly circle the atom’s nucleus containing one or more protons. Why does this happen? As far as I can tell, no one knows why electrons follow prescribed precise orbits around the nucleus.
The electrons are arranged into shells with a maximum number allowed per shell. As the number increases in more complex atoms, additional shells are formed, again with a fixed maximum number of electrons permitted each shell. The orbits of the circling electrons in each shell arrange themselves so that they do not bump into each other; again, how could this happen so fortuitously?
And also amazing, when two hydrogen atoms combine to make H2 (hydrogen gas), somehow the two electron shells merge to re-form into a figure eight shell. Or when a hydrogen atom loses its electron and becomes a positive hydrogen ion (like in an acidic solution), or in an interstellar plasma, the proton maintains its space. It does not bump into other nearby particles, but remains separate. Sometimes moving with high energy, they do bump into each other causing
disruptions.
By simply varying the number of protons and electrons, the chemistry and physics of the resulting chemical element changes drastically.
One proton and one electron gives hydrogen. H2 can be a gas, a liquid, or even a metallic solid (believed to exist in the cores of some planets). Make it two protons and two electrons and you still have a gas: Helium. Go to three protons and three electrons and now we have the first metal: Lithium. Jump to six protons and six electrons (plus a few neutrons) and we find carbon, the basis of all life and chemical compounds numbering into multiple hundred-thousands of types, each with its own properties.
Jump to 25 protons and electrons, and you get Iron, in the midst of a jumble of other metals with close numbers of elementary particles. How amazing that such minor changes in the composition of an atom can result in such wide differences in the resulting elementary characteristics!
Somehow, when the Universe came into being, atoms were created or formed by some process. We can describe the forces that make sub-atomic particles interact, but forces do not create themselves. They had to be finely tuned for atoms to exist. From the very beginning, they conformed to a scheme that allowed them to remain stable without self-destructing. As explained above, atoms have a configuration requiring negative electrons to assume positions and motions keeping them apart from the positive protons. In the scheme of things, this is a marvelous way to put matter together. How did it happen? It took some unfathomable super-intelligence to do that. And then think of all the atoms in the universe. It is estimated that there are 1022 stars, and probably more than that is the number of planets. All these are made up of tiny, perfectly operating atoms!" CEH
that are in heaven, and that are in earth,
visible and invisible,...
Colossians 1:16
"Atoms are mostly empty space with a nucleus containing the proton and neutrons, surrounded by a cloud of circling electrons, all in precise orbits around the nucleus. Protons have a positive electrical charge, electrons a negative electrical charge, and neutrons no electric charge. Why don’t the positive protons attract the negative electrons, and pow! – they would neutralize each other and create a neutron?
This does not happen because for some reason the electrons endlessly circle the atom’s nucleus containing one or more protons. Why does this happen? As far as I can tell, no one knows why electrons follow prescribed precise orbits around the nucleus.
The electrons are arranged into shells with a maximum number allowed per shell. As the number increases in more complex atoms, additional shells are formed, again with a fixed maximum number of electrons permitted each shell. The orbits of the circling electrons in each shell arrange themselves so that they do not bump into each other; again, how could this happen so fortuitously?
And also amazing, when two hydrogen atoms combine to make H2 (hydrogen gas), somehow the two electron shells merge to re-form into a figure eight shell. Or when a hydrogen atom loses its electron and becomes a positive hydrogen ion (like in an acidic solution), or in an interstellar plasma, the proton maintains its space. It does not bump into other nearby particles, but remains separate. Sometimes moving with high energy, they do bump into each other causing
By simply varying the number of protons and electrons, the chemistry and physics of the resulting chemical element changes drastically.
One proton and one electron gives hydrogen. H2 can be a gas, a liquid, or even a metallic solid (believed to exist in the cores of some planets). Make it two protons and two electrons and you still have a gas: Helium. Go to three protons and three electrons and now we have the first metal: Lithium. Jump to six protons and six electrons (plus a few neutrons) and we find carbon, the basis of all life and chemical compounds numbering into multiple hundred-thousands of types, each with its own properties.
Jump to 25 protons and electrons, and you get Iron, in the midst of a jumble of other metals with close numbers of elementary particles. How amazing that such minor changes in the composition of an atom can result in such wide differences in the resulting elementary characteristics!
Somehow, when the Universe came into being, atoms were created or formed by some process. We can describe the forces that make sub-atomic particles interact, but forces do not create themselves. They had to be finely tuned for atoms to exist. From the very beginning, they conformed to a scheme that allowed them to remain stable without self-destructing. As explained above, atoms have a configuration requiring negative electrons to assume positions and motions keeping them apart from the positive protons. In the scheme of things, this is a marvelous way to put matter together. How did it happen? It took some unfathomable super-intelligence to do that. And then think of all the atoms in the universe. It is estimated that there are 1022 stars, and probably more than that is the number of planets. All these are made up of tiny, perfectly operating atoms!" CEH