We're looking this week for ways to respond to militant atheism by constructing reasonable arguments for God's existence. We've seen that reasoning from creation to a Creator will not be compelling for someone who thinks that the universe came to be through natural means, or that history moves in a never-ending circle.

Now I don't feel so lonely this morning. It turns out that you and I may have planetary friends only 20 light-years away. Today's New York Times and Dallas Morning News are reporting that European astronomers have discovered a planet they say may be inhabitable. Our neighbor has been given the exciting name Gliese 581c, as it orbits the red dwarf star Gliese 581 in the constellation Libra.

The idea that my ancestors are descended from your ancestors goes back further than today's news, of course. You may remember that in 1987 a biochemist proposed that all living human beings had inherited part of their DNA from a single woman.

The One who created the primordial event physicists long to explore also made physicists with the capacity for such exploration. The latter may be the greater miracle.

The God of the universe was the first to know...his creation proclaims the Creator, he knew we'd need help hearing the message. So he gave us his most sublime creation: the Word of God.

The more we learn about the world, the more we realize we don't know. In comparison to what remains to be learned about the universe, we're all a little like an Indian living by his blowgun in the Computer Age.

As we continue to explore ways our world reveals its Maker, consider his divine omniscience. You and I are bound by the space-time continuum. "Tomorrow" is a word, not a reality. But the God who made time transcends it.

God was the first self-revealer in history. Creation reveals the Creator, in the same way that a landscape reveals the painter or a skyscraper tells us something about the architect. Yesterday we noted God's omnipotence as we surveyed the power of nature and the relative impotence of humans.

But even before the ancients got interested in outdoor ads, the Creator of all creation was already in the business: "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard" (Psalm 19:1-3). What does God's outdoor advertising tell us?

When we consider all that humans can do today, we're amazed with ourselves. For instance, yesterday's news reported a breakthrough which will enable silicon-based chips to produce laser beams, enabling higher speed in data communications than has ever been possible before. I'm impressed. But then I look outside my window at a tree no human can make from scratch, and up at a universe we cannot begin to measure, and I'm less impressed with us.