Why Oxygen?

(3 Minute Read. 9Aug2023)

Liquid Oxygen Boiling

Every moment of every day, every person is utterly dependent on a particular substance. What is it?

Oxygen is an essential component of the air we breathe and the water we drink. All of our food, whether plant or animal, relies on oxygen as well.

Yet when was the last time you gave thanks for oxygen? I fear we all thoughtlessly take oxygen for granted.

Oxygen: How Much?

What are you mostly made of? Few people would not answer, “Oxygen” — yet oxygen is the most abundant element in the human body. Oxygen comprises 65% of a person’s mass.

Even for our planet as a whole, oxygen is Earth’s most abundant element by mass.

Oxygen is a colorless, odorless, tasteless gas. It is the second most common element of the air after nitrogen. Oxygen makes up 21% of Earth’s atmosphere by volume, following nitrogen at 78%. Carbon dioxide (CO₂) makes up only 0.04%.

Such a high atmospheric oxygen concentration is unusual for planets in the Solar System. Mars, for example, has only 0.1% atmospheric oxygen.

Oxygen: Where From?

But where did oxygen come from? Why does Earth have so much?

The consistent echo of Scripture is that God designed every aspect of Earth’s environment to be a suitable place for the people He made to go camping! Oxygen is essential for campfires.
For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens (He is the God who formed the earth and made it, He established it and did not create it a waste place, but formed it to be inhabited), “I am the LORD, and there is none else. (Isaiah 45:18)

Oxygen was created by God on Creation Day One. We know this because God made water on Day One and a water molecule H₂O consists of two hydrogen atoms bonded to a single oxygen atom. Therefore oxygen and hydrogen must have been created on Day One.
By the word of God the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by water. (2 Peter 3:5)
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. . . . And there was evening and there was morning, one day. (Genesis 1:1-2; 5)

Earth’s supply is continuously replenished by plants through the process of photosynthesis. Plants produce oxygen from water and carbon dioxide using energy from sunlight. See Of Plants and People for details on photosynthesis. Most of Earth’s oxygen comes from phytoplankton in the oceans via photosynthesis.

Oxygen: Why Crucial?

The most familiar oxygen compound is water H₂O. But many types of molecules vital to living creatures contain oxygen atoms. These include proteins, carbohydrates, fats, and nucleic acids, as well as structural compounds in bone, teeth, and shells. Life is impossible without oxygen for many reasons.

Oxygen: How Distributed?

Blood carries oxygen O₂ from the lungs to the rest of the body. But the solubility of oxygen in water or blood is too low to sustain life.

To fix this, the Great Creator designed two proteins, hemoglobin (Hgb) and myoglobin (Mb). Hemoglobin is the red-pigmented protein that gives blood its characteristic red color. Hemoglobin carries oxygen throughout the body in the blood. Hemoglobin carries almost 70 times as much oxygen in the blood as oxygen dissolved in blood plasma. Myoglobin stores and transports oxygen around within a cell.

In the blood, each hemoglobin molecule has four iron-containing molecules called heme groups, each of which can carry one oxygen O₂ molecule. Thus each hemoglobin molecule can carry up to four oxygen molecules. Myoglobin carries only a single oxygen O₂ molecule.

A single human red blood cell has about 250 million hemoglobin molecules. Thus one red blood cell carries 1 billion oxygen O₂ molecules. One drop of blood has about 250 million red blood cells. Thus one drop of blood can carry about 250 quadrillion oxygen O₂ molecules. That is a great deal of oxygen carried by one drop of blood. What an ingeniously efficient design by the Great Creator for moving oxygen throughout the body!

Oxygen Question

Is the design and use of oxygen by living creatures and the production of oxygen by plants an accident or extraordinary coincidence? Or were all the oxygen systems and uses designed by a Creator? I think the answer is obvious.

Oxygen is a huge blessing, and the Great Creator deserves credit for making it. Thanks and praise to the Great Creator for His extraordinary gift of oxygen!

Questions to Ponder

1. What trigger can prompt you thank God for oxygen repeatedly?
2. What characteristic of your region of Earth is a particular blessing from the Great Creator?

Share your thoughts on these questions in the comments below. It could encourage or help another reader.

For Christ and His Kingdom.
Alere Flammam Veritatis.
Soli Deo Gloria.

Read the prequels in this Why? Series:
Why Is the Age of the Earth Important?
Why Apologetics?
Why Do Atheists Care?
Why Did Adam Sin?
Why Should Adam’s Sin Affect Me?
Why Do Leaves Change Color?
Why Do I Write the Bible-Science Guy Blog?
Why Is Ice Slippery?
Why Does Salt Melt Ice?
Why the Virus?
Why Is Christmas December 25?
Why the Week?
Why Do Clocks Run Clockwise?
Why Light?
Why Water?

Read the sequel:
Why Carbon?

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©William T. Pelletier, Ph.D.
“contending earnestly for the faith”
“destroying speculations against the knowledge of God”
“for the defense of the gospel”
(Jude 1:3; 2 Cor 10:5; Phil 1:16)
Wednesday, August 9, 2023 A.D.

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. (Genesis 1:1-2)

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