Malcolm Cutchins: Scorching heat isn’t going anywhere soon

The scorching heat lately is a strong reminder of one of the billboards (seen usually in Florida) that proclaims, “So you think it’s hot here … God.”

It’s strange that Hell isn’t discussed much these days, except in jokes. But, Heaven, why that’s going to be where everybody is going eventually. In bold print recently on a news-page not the funnies we were told by one of the friends of the late trimester abortionist George Tiller that, “Heaven will be a much, much better place when he gets there.” Sure, it will, and it’s going to be 35 degrees here tomorrow.

It’s important to remember the good things that come from all this sunshine: blueberries, strawberries, peaches, cantaloupe, watermelon, all kinds of beans, and much more. The Ag Market in Auburn and the Farmer’s Market in Opelika, and all the various festivals throughout our state offer much that we wouldn’t have without the Sun/Earth system. The strawberries at last week’s Ag Market were red all the way through, the best I’ve ever had.

A recent news broadcast told of a major new southeast Alabama product, “Wiregrass Blueberries,” comprising now about 300 acres of plants in the wiregrass area.

Unfortunately, we too often take for granted our Sun, and Earth’s precise position relative to it. In “The Privileged Planet,” (2004) it is noted that, “Had Earth been closer to the Sun, it would probably have been a hothouse with a thick atmosphere like Venus. If it had been much farther from the Sun, Earth would have needed a much thicker atmosphere … hostile to animal life.”

In a newer book, “Why Us?” (March 2009), author James Le Fanu, a British physician who is published in leading medical journals, has some interesting related observations.

He is not writing as a theist, but observes how finely tuned our universe happens to be, no matter where you look.

He asks why there are so many amazing faces on the large variety of bat species when their “near-blindness should make them indifferent to physical appearances?” And “Why should the many thousands of species of birds yet be so distinguishable one from the other by their pattern of flight or the shape of their wing, the colour of their plumage or the notes of their song?”

While acknowledging man’s ingenuity (artificial hearts, for example), he shows how it is dwarfed by God’s. One reviewer summarizes this point, science is not a savior, “The double helix is actually impenetrable, the brain unfathomable, the genome over-rated, and the self a mystery.”

Fanu even marvels at humans’ dependence on earthworms; “the humble earthworm, without whose exertions in aerating the dense, inhospitable soil there could never have been a single field of corn … Five hundred thousand to an acre passing 10 tons of soil each year through their bodies.”

The scorching heat is predicted to persist, a continuing reminder.

Dr. Malcolm Cutchins is an emeritus professor of engineering of Auburn University and writes a weekly column for the Opelika-Auburn News.