Earthshine is even more faint because the moon's "albedo" (a specific kind of reflectivity) is less than Earth's. Even though this dim light is only a reflection it can still illuminate some features of the moon. Earthshine can be best seen during the crescent phases (the 1-5 day period before or after a New Moon).
b. THE EARTH GETS CLOSER AND FARTHER FROM THE SUN
That religion may not be the end all be all of every scientific question ever posed. What I mean is that religion may not be able to answer every question that comes from the world around us, an example being how religions interpreted the Earth as being the center of everything, when scientifically this is not the case and religions disputed this until they eventually died out or re-evaluated their beliefs.
