Pete, there are a whole bundle of inaccuracies about Mercury in that article. So many that it would take me a couple of days to detail them all and I simply don't have the time for that. And you wouldn't believe it anyway. All those supposed anomalies are well within the range of know physics and planetology.

I'm afraid it's your concept of God who is the real bungler. He allowed the serpent into the Garden of Eden in the first place and wasn't minding the store when the Slithery One conned Eve. Then He was off somewhere doing something when Cain killed Abel. Later on, He decided things had gone so pear-shaped that He had to essentially destroy His Creation and almost everyone in it and start all over. Hence, the Flood.

Not one of the sharper graduates of Hogwarts, I'm afraid!

My concept of a Supreme Being would be a Consciousness that could lay out the laws of physics and chemistry (which pretty much subsumes everything else such as laws of planetary motion and biochemistry-genetics-evolution, et al), then once that is programmed into the system, says, "Okay, let 'er rip!" And everything follows in due course and time, including the evolution of man from lower biological forms.

My concept of a Supreme Being doesn't have to keep tinkering with the system, fine-tuning it, and hitting the "reset" button because He, She, or It was intelligent enough to get it right in the first place.

And as to the length of time involved? 12,500,000,000 for the Cosmos to form, with the Sun, Earth, and the rest of the solar system forming over the past 4,500,000,000 years. The Supreme Being is Eternal. He, She, or It, isn't in any particular rush.

What's the hurry?

Don Firth