Today is the day that science news services have been anticipating. For months they’ve been describing the excitement and fear surrounding the firing up of the world’s largest atom smasher– in yet another effort to unlock the secrets of the universe.
10,000 scientists are involved in the 10 billion dollar, 17 mile underground particle generator that some say rivals the pyramids in size and complexity. Some think it also brings with it some of the mystery. One scientist says, “Let me let you in on a secret: We physicists are not driven to do this because of better color television…That’s a spin-off. We do this because we want to understand our role and our place in the universe.” Others talk about the heady idea of finding a crack into other dimensions of the universe.
This time a few voices in the wilderness have warned about the dangers of human efforts to find “the God particle” hiding behind the smallest known bits of matter (and responsible–as the theory goes– for the creation of mass).
According to a September 9, 2008 post on CNN.com’s SciTechBlog, “There’s been a mild media frenzy…focused not on the potential for discovery, but on concerns that there’s a theoretical chance that smashing these two proton streams together at nearly the speed of light will create tiny black holes that will unite, swallow up the Large Hadron Collider, then swallow up Switzerland, France, Earth, and the rest of the solar system.”
Peter Dykstra Executive Producer CNN Science, Tech, and Weather ended his post with a smile saying, “I’m pretty sure the world will still be here tomorrow, when testing begins, or through the next month as the tests complete and they try out the Real Thing. If I’m wrong, I’ll buy every one of you a nice lunch. But I’m pretty sure we’ll go back to destroying the world the slow, methodical, hard way, and not in a flash while you’re sleeping tonight.”
So, here’s what some of the world’s most intelligent minds are doing– trying to replicate conditions that existed immediately after the Big Bang birth of the universe, to look for a mindless subatomic shadow that is theoretically responsible for creating matter– and the creative process that resulted in mosquitoes, elephants, humming birds, and orchids.
So do I think it makes more sense to believe in the eternal tri-unity of a personal God who created the galaxies, earthworms, dandelions, lampreys, and us? Can’t go there. My mind locks up at the thought.
But what does make sense to me is what the Apostle Paul wrote when he said, “For the truth about God is known to them instinctively. God has put this knowledge in their hearts. From the time the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky and all that God made. They can clearly see (i.e. the evidence of) his invisible qualities– his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse whatsoever for not knowing God. Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. The result was that their minds became dark and confused” (Rom 1:19-21NLT).
Seems to me that there are some real and present darkness issues that are far more significant than the theoretical “black hole” dangers of Europe’s new Super Collider. I’m thinking that any effort to look past Christ for clues to our existence and role in the universe is like a mosquito-sized “black hole” sucking blood out of our hearts, and truth and reason out of our minds.
PS, Subsequent news reports indicated that the Collider was shut down for costly repairs soon after start up. See article at this link.
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