I'm thankful for Hydrogen

Hydrogen is the most common element in the universe. About 75% of the mass of the universe is Hydrogen. That is even more remarkable, since Hydrogen is also the least massive of the kinds of atoms. It takes about 12 Hydrogens to have the same mass as Carbon, and over 200 Hydrogens to have the same mass as some of the heavier elements.

So why, other than that it is common, is Hydrogen important? For a number of reasons. The graphic says that Hydrogen makes up part of water, and water is a unique, and very important substance. The graphic also says that Hydrogen is important in photosynthesis. Photosynthesis uses light energy to split Hydrogen from water, and to attach that Hydrogen to Carbon. As a result of the process, glucose, C₆H₁₂O₆, is produced. Glucose is the basic food molecule of the biosphere, and it has 12 Hydrogen atoms. The graphic says that Hydrogen is found in DNA. It is. It's also found in fats, sugars, proteins, vitamins, hormones, and more, all of them essential to living things, including us.

The graphic also says that Hydrogen can be said to be the ultimate source of the sun's energy. That is true. Four Hydrogen nuclei fuse, to make a Helium nucleus, and, in the process, a little of the mass of the four Hydrogens is changed to energy, according Einstein's E=mc² equation. Since the mass is multiplied by the velocity of light, squared, that energy adds up. The sun is not burning, in the usual sense. It is changing its Hydrogen to Helium, nuclear fusion, and is releasing energy in the process. The sun is changing about 4.289x10¹² g of mass to energy every second. (source) That's about 5 million tons. But don't worry. Even at that rate, the sun isn't going to run out of Hydrogen for a very long time. There's a LOT of Hydrogen in the sun.

They aren't on the graphic, but I'll mention two other important things that Hydrogen is and does.

Hydrogen makes acids to be what they are. An acid is a substance that can release a charged Hydrogen atom. Some of us have too much acid in our digestive system, and take various antacids, or proton release inhibitors. (A proton makes up the nucleus of a Hydrogen atom.) But acids are very important. Stomach acid does a good job in digesting food, for one thing.

Hydrogen is an excellent fuel, in the sense that you can get a lot of energy from it when you  burn it. Rockets blasting off into space use Hydrogen as their fuel. The chemical equation is very simple: 2 Hydrogens + 1 Oxygen = 1 water + energy. Recall that photosynthesis uses light energy to break up water. Burning Hydrogen does the opposite. It puts Hydrogen and Oxygen together, and gives up energy in the process. There is Hydrogen in most of the molecules in gasoline, and in kerosene, and in natural gas, coal and wood. When any of these burn, water is produced. (Check your exhaust pipe on a cold day.)

Hydrogen fuel, in various ways, may become more useful to us in the future. Hydrogen fuel cells for automobiles are being tested. Since Hydrogen is available in water, and there is plenty of water, we aren't going to run out of Hydrogen. However, like photosynthesis, to get Hydrogen out of water takes energy, which means that Hydrogen fuel cells will probably take more energy to produce than they make available. But they may still be used, because of convenience, and cutting down on the pollution from burning gasoline, if various developmental details can be worked out.

Thanks for reading! I believe, but cannot prove, that God planned for Hydrogen, the smallest nucleus, to have these important roles in our lives, and in the way the universe is. It can't be disproved, either.

Resurrection: Re-assembling the body. John Wesley's thoughts

From John Wesley's sermon 137, "On the Resurrection of the Dead." (1872, Public Domain):

God can distinguish and keep unmixed from all other bodies the particular dust into which our several bodies are dissolved, and can gather it together and join it again, how far soever dispersed asunder. God is infinite both in knowledge and power. He knoweth the number of the stars, and calleth them all by their names; he can tell the number of the sands on the sea-shore: And is it at all incredible, that He should distinctly know the several particles of dust into which the bodies of men are mouldered, and plainly discern to whom they belong, and the various changes they have undergone? Why should it be thought strange, that He, who at the first formed us, whose eyes saw our substance yet being imperfect, from whom we were not hid when we were made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth, should know every part of our bodies, and every particle of dust whereof we were composed? The artist knows every part of the watch which he frames; and if it should fall in pieces, and the various parts of it lie in the greatest disorder and confusion, yet he can soon gather them together, and as easily distinguish one from another, as if every one had its particular mark. He knows the use of each, and can readily give it its proper place, and put them all exactly in the same figure and order they were before. And can we think that the Almighty Builder of the world, whose workmanship we are, does not know whereof we are made, or is not acquainted with the several parts of which this earthly tabernacle is composed? All these lay in one vast heap at the creation, till he separated them one from another, and framed them into those distinct bodies whereof this beautiful world consists. And why may not the same Power collect the ruins of our corrupted bodies, and restore them to their former condition?

Wesley didn't know much, or anything, about atoms, those almost indestructible particles that molecules are made of, that can, in some cases, be part of the air one moment, and part of a plant the next, then eaten by a human. Atoms that I am continually giving off as I breathe, sweat, and excrete. He didn't know that some of the Carbon atoms in my body may have also found, for a while, in Moses, or in Jezebel, or in the bodies of countless other people from all parts of the earth, and from all of human history, or prehistory.

But the usual indivisibility of atoms, and their almost infinite ability to substitute for other like atoms, don't negate Wesley's argument. But perhaps it could use some modernization.

One thing Wesley didn't seem to consider is that our bodies are changing. I now have cells, and atoms, that I didn't have 30 years ago, and many of the cells and atoms I had then are gone. I've been a moving target for re-assembly all my life. So have you. God must have some way of determining what sort of body I will have when resurrected. Will I be a mature person? A teenager? Something intermediate, or transcending all human stages? I don't know. But, whatever it is, as Wesley said, an omnipotent and omniscient God should have no trouble in figuring out how to resurrect me.

Then there's the matter of the migration of atoms from one person to another. One way of updating Wesley's assertion about "particular dust" is to point out that, as far as we know, all Carbon 12 atoms are alike. Exactly and precisely alike. They are made of the same particles, be those neutrons, quarks, or something else. So, if my resurrection body contains Carbon 12, God doesn't necessarily have to bother with keeping track of which particular Carbon 12 atoms were in my body at some particular time. He just has to use the same number of Carbon atoms in the same way, since they are all identical.

Another way of updating Wesley's assertion is to say that, for all we know, God does differentiate between particular atoms of Carbon 12 (and, of course, other atoms, as well) even though we can't. If that's the case, and one of my Nitrogen 14 atoms was also part of, say, Dorcas, an omnipotent and omniscient God should have no trouble in making a new one, and in giving both of us an identical Nitrogen 14 atom.

Aren't you glad that how we are resurrected is up to God? Please, God, may I experience that.

Thanks for reading.