This week is an exciting week in science. In fact, it may be fair to say that it is THE most anticipated week in all of scientific history. Sure, there have been many breakthrough moments in science in the past, but most of those have been accidental or serendipitous. But, on Wednesday this week, the world's particle physicists will hold their collective breath as CERN (the European Organisation for Nuclear Research) switches on the biggest scientific machine ever created, the Large Hadron Collider (see photo and look for the man at the bottom - when they say "large", they mean "large").

A huge circular chamber, 27 kilometers in circumference, situated 100m undergound on the French-Swiss border, taking 20 years and billions upon billions of dollars to construct, this machine could actually fulfill its purpose in less than 1 hour. Its purpose is to recreate the conditions that existed at the Big Bang. The goal is to try and find the Higgs particle (or Higgs boson) which is currently the missing element of our scientific knowledge of how everything holds together. The importance of this particle is immense - its even been nicknamed "the God particle" since, according to theory anyway, it is the "stuff" of which everything is made.

The scientists talk about "creation", and that on Wednesday they have a chance to go back in time and watch the creation event happen again. This will take us back billions and billions of years to the beginning of everything. The want to understand what happened in the millionth of a second just after the Big Bang happened.

For the most fantastic insights into what they're doing, and the science behind it, check out this 20 minutes long TED talk, or this hour long BBC documentary (this is only available in the UK, unfortunately) by Prof Brian Cox, one of the people involved in the project. (PS, if you don't know about TED, be careful - when you find it, you'll be sucked into the content for days on end!! It's an awesome resource).

There are two hysterical responses at the moment. The first is from people who have read about the LHC and the fact that what they are doing has the potential to create a black hole that will destroy our solar system. The scientists at CERN have never ruled out this possibility (they're scientists, and never deal in absolutes when probabilities are in play), and - with a wink and a nod - say, "it's only a 1 in 50,000 chance" (scarily, that's about the same chance as me dying in a flood, so that does not fill me with confidence).

The second no doubt will be from evangelical Christians, especially the young earth, literal-Genesis-1 creationists. I don't mean to be pejorative in using those labels, just specific. These are the people who walk through Natural History museums, as I did last weekend with my girls, and instead of being in awe at the extinct fossils, they either dismiss them as works of fancy, or do some very unscientific explaining that the Genesis Flood caused all of this to happen. They typically quote science that has long since been disproved, and use examples (like, "how did the eye evolve?") which have long since been answered, to back up their pseudo-science. It is going to be interesting to see how they respond when the LHC provides incontrovertible evidence of the process by which the universe has been formed.

Of course, in America, this crowd have tried to sneak in creationism under the guise of "intelligent design". This strategy must have felt clever at the time, but now just looks silly.

What we really need as Christians who believe not only in an intelligent Creator, but also a personal and involved one, too, is to tackle the scientists with the one question they have no answer for. "Where did the stuff that went Bang in a Big way come from?" What was there before there was nothing, because nothing doesn't go bang? In fact, even Richard Dawkin says this is the discussion he would LIKE to have with Christians.

And why not? The scientists are amazed at how finely tuned the sub atomic forces are. If any of the forces were either stronger or weaker, by the merest fraction, the universe would not exist. To believe that is an accident of fate takes some serious faith. I believe a personal, involved, immanent Creator designed it that way. I believe He had fun doing so - a great backyard "experiment", where God put all things into motion and lovingly watched them unfold over time (time being one of the forced He had actually created so that the whole thing would unfold in that dimension). The scale is momentous. The goal audacious.

And, then, when the universe had developed to a certain point, God came down to this one tiny pinprick of a rock and breathed His own soul into one of the creatures of His creation. There is no conflict here. In fact, the scale of it makes your head reel. The length of time that God presides over a universe, just to make it perfect for us is staggering and humbling. The brilliance of the original design - the energy of the whole known universe and all its potential reduced to the tiniest particle that God rolls around in the palm of His hand and then releases, separating it from Himself in a cosmic explosion of energy that begins everything we now know. I am in awe.

And, maybe, just maybe, on Wednesday, if we don't somehow bring an end to it all, we will get a glimpse of the wonder and majesty and brilliance of God's ultimate design.

For one, I wish the scientists all the very best of success, and look forward to taking giant leaps forward in our understanding of the world we inhabit and how it began. This brings me closer to God, not further away from Him.

As I prepare my three daughters - all under 10 years old - for this event, I hope they catch something of my excitement. I hope at least one of them goes into this field of science as they grow up. I hope all of them leave behind the vestiges of a Christianity that is desperately outdated in this arena, and embrace the majesty of a God of eternity and long time scales, who created and oversaw evolution and breathed life into us and is still present in His creation today.

If this thing goes BANG it will be BIG!

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Posted by: Willem Bronkhorst 08 Sep, 2008 - 15:55:12

LOL!
Yes Willem!

and even bigger LOL to your post Graeme, you crack me up!

I would love to hear the explanation of how the eye evolved as I have been searching the web for answers just like that? Or maybe you would like to suggest an explanation for the infinitely complex systems on the sub-cellular level that caused devoted evolutionists like MJ Behe to question the whole thing! Or maybe you would like to explain to us the fossil record. As our old friend Mr. Darwin pointed out, a lack of intermediary fossils would sink his theory. Well, we are all still waiting with bated breath, maybe you have one on your coffee table to show us becuase you speak so confidently!

Graeme I laugh becuase I LOVE science specially when new discoveries amaze us. So please show us the discoveries have proven the theory of evolution and the big bang? I am dying to know what they are becuase until now not a single professor in either the field of palaeontology, geology, biology, cosmology or physics have been able to do so.

But your confidence is cute! LOL!

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Posted by: Martyn Kilian 08 Sep, 2008 - 18:29:54

Scientists will never be able to prove the theory of evolution or the Big Bang as fact, because to do so means they would have to have been there during the time these things happened. They're currently accepted as the most plausible theories that scientists have to work with - and, of course, some scientists are working with other theories.

Last year I spoke with Mike Anderson, a micro-biologist who happens to be a Christian, and asked me that, as a Christian, does he accept the theory of evolution as what has actually happened. By and large, yes, was his response. Now, regardless of whether he is right or wrong, the point is that he can be a Christian *and* believe in evolution.

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Posted by: Roger Saner 08 Sep, 2008 - 19:34:29

Godde created to explore the unknown and to tame the untameable. I've got no doubt that S/He smiles fondly when thinking about those scientists and no doubt encourages them.

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Posted by: Tim Victor 09 Sep, 2008 - 09:42:13

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