My friend Mike just called to inform me that we just survived a harrowing “end of the world” event. What, you didn’t know? No way, neither did I!
After reading multiple science articles in the past hour I discovered that Scientists from around the world have built the biggest single machine ever built (17 miles in circumference sitting 300 feet below the ground), taking the largest amount of time (28 years) costing the most money ever spent (8 billion dollars), for the most spectacular science experiment ever conducted (one intended to create a mini big bang).
It works something like this: scientists fire atom-particles around a 17 mile “race-track” at near light speed, crashing them together, in hopes of creating the same environment of light, heat, and energy that supposedly existed in the nanoseconds leading up to and following the Big Bang (and hopefully creating the mysterious “dark matter” and “dark energy” that allegedly fuels the universe and simply must exist in order for the universe to be sustainable without God).
(FYI: the Gospel according to Matt likes the Big Bang theory both scientifically and theologically and believes it fits perfectly into the creation account of Genesis One).
Proponents of this machine, called the Large Hadron Collider, say that it will help scientists and physicists understand the origins of the universe. Opponents of this machine say that it will create an unstable nuclear enviornment that will result in the appearance of mini-black-holes that will devour planet earth (all in the name of science, of course). Meanwhile the proponents respond that there’s only a 1 in 50 million chance that the earth will be destroyed (about the same odds of you winning a big lottery). Matt’s Law of Irony says these same scientists are probably grumbling about the effects of “man-made global warming.”
This morning the scientists flipped on the switch and began the experiments. The good news is that we all survived. The scary news is that they were just doing test runs and they won’t get the machine up to full speed for a couple of more months (Note to family: all I want for Christmas is…, Christmas…, which allegedly is in jeopardy).
Anyway, what do I care? First, I’d like us all to survive at least until Christmas as previously mentioned (C’mon I love Christmas). Second, I like the theological (God-related) implications of this Machine.
Skeptics of God will say this Machine proves that the Big Bang is possible without an all-powerful, all-knowing Creator.
I suppose I’m simple minded (as some readers are sure to point out), but I’d respond with just two questions (not answers): It takes the smartest people (in the history of the world) nearly 30 years building the most complex and powerful machine (in the history of the world) to create a big bang so small that it requires an electron microscope to see it? And you think a cosmic Big Bang happened per chance, without any intelligence, forethought, or initial energy source?
Folks that is unbelievable! But it may very well be the end of the world as we know it. Oh well, I’m doing just fine.
