Wednesday morning at 3 a.m. our time the large hadron collider (LHC) went online. I have been following this project with some interest for the last year or so. I can’t remember the details except that I was reading something about the hopeful discovery of the Higgs Boson or as some people call it the “god Particle.” Just that phrase was enough to capture my attention and set me on a course of trying to read as much as I could in an attempt to understand the supposed relationship between E=mc2 and quantum theory. Let me just say that I didn’t understand most of it and the part I do understand….I wonder if I understand correctly.
In order to even buy into the possible reality of a “god particle” you have to accept the “big bang theory” of beginning. Now as a born-again Christian a belief in the six literal 24 hour days of creation as recorded in Genesis is a given. Although very few reputable scientist still hold to the absurd Darwinian view of evolution quite a few do hold to some form of a big bang theory. (All of us have seen the bumper sticker, “I believe in the big bang—God spoke and BANG—there it was.) As a Christian I affirm the existence of GOD not merely a “god particle” and I believe that all that exists was created by Him and for His pleasure (Rev. 4:11).
I think what interested me most about this whole issue is that Genesis 1:2 is shrouded in so much mystery. In verse one God creates and in verse three there is the first 24 hour day. So, if I am reading it right, there was a point after initial creation and before the creation of time when “the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep and the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” My first instinct is to ask “how long was verse two” but there cannot be a “long” without time. The mystery of verse two leaves us open to wonder. There is nothing wrong with theory and hypothetical so long as our theory and hypothetical doesn’t deny or offend the Word of God.
It was my interest in this that led me to contact one of our church members, Bill King, and ask him to search the web to see if he could find a video link where I could watch the scientist turn on the LHC. This moment was the combined effort of 20 years, 10,000 men, and 20 billion dollars. True to his skill I saw in my email, around 11pm, that Bill had found the link. I clicked on it to make sure that it worked, set my clock for 3 a.m. and went to sleep. Would this moment in history be made like Neil Armstrong walking on the moon or like Geraldo Rivera opening Al Capone’s vault? In honesty the event was quite boring since it was only a test run for one beam of particles and no ‘colliding’ was going to happen. Perhaps it was because I was tired and time may prove me wrong but the moment didn’t seem too important.
In great simplicity the LHC is a particle accelerator near Geneva on the border of Switzerland and France. It is a 27-kilometer tube ring 100 meters below the suface. This ring will be cooled to just under -456 degree Fahrenheit and particles will be beamed a nearly the speed of light in one direction and then others will be beamed at the same speed in the opposite direction and these two beams will be directed to collide inside four giant detectors. The particles colliding will create energy which, in theory, will produce new particles. This is an attempt to recreate the environment of that moment after the hypothetical “big bang” and by doing so they think they will be able to isolate the Higgs Boson and understand the origin of the universe.
Just as the structure of the snowflake emerges when water freezes scientist theorize that the universe was in a state of symmetry and after a period of extreme heat followed by a period of freezing is what formed the present structure and identity of particles. Could that be what happened, through God’s power, in Genesis 1:2?
As conservative evangelical Christians we need to be wary of immediately dismissing this endeavor. We should not be 
afraid that science will discover something that is contradictory to divine truth. If that were possible then the bible wouldn’t be true or divine. Christians need to avoid the knee jerk reaction to dismiss mankind’s scientific endeavors to peer into the unseen world and understand the most basic building blocks of matter. Mapping the human genome only went further to affirm intelligent design and I am persuaded that any true discovery in this project will do the same.
By the end of the year when the LHC is fully functional it may be that they find nothing, in which case they will have to go back to the drawing board and search for a deeper understanding about the theory of matter. It may be that they will find something that will profit and bless humanity for generations to come. Or, it could be that this endeavor could lead to something awful. (Some doomsdayers are predicting an earthbound black hole.) Only God knows what will happen but it would be foolish to lampoon this event as a case of over educated ignorance.
In Genesis 11 when God addresses the issue of a unified humanity building the tower of Babel he says, “…Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.” It is clear that with enough unity and resource man is capable of intellectual pursuits that are beyond our common imagination.
With such potential what could the church accomplish if it labored as aggressively and with as much unity as those who have spent 20 years of their lives for the LHC? There may or may not be a “god particle” from which all mass comes but we know there is a God and His name is Jesus and all things do come from him.
It is a shame that scholars and intellectuals from every part of the world can find more unity over a probable theory than many local churches can find over a powerful and pure God. To become a church where God would say, “nothing will be restrained from them” should be more than an ideal—it should become our highest endeavor.
