On a Collision Course With the Dark Ages

As if we didn’t have enough to worry about, now we are supposed lose sleep wondering whether a super powerful particle collider in Switzerland might produce a microscopic black hole that will swallow the earth. Seriously. According to msn.com, a lawsuit has been filed to shut the project down which started this week. It was brought by Walter Wagner, a former radiation safety officer with a law degree. Now there’s a dangerous combination.

Despite the outcry, these are not mad scientists bent on destroying the world. No, they have a much more ambitious purpose; they want to re-create the Big Bang in order to find God, or at least something that has been nick named the “God particle.” The technical and less colorful name is a “Higgs Boson” and it might be the key to the mysteries of the universe.

Yes, there is a chance they could produce a mini-black hole, but the experts assure us that the little guys are very unstable and will simply blink out of existence as soon as they appear. Too bad. Sounds like a waste of a perfectly good black hole. Considering the time and money being invested, if they don’t find God we should at least get something out of the deal even if it is a massively destructive quantum singularity. Assuming we could control it, we could use it to suck down garbage and our landfill problems would be solved forever. A green black hole, the mind boggles.

I only wish it were happening at the Fermilab collider outside my old hometown of Geneva, Illinois. By God, if anyone is going to find God, they should be American or at least from a country that wears religion on its collective sleeve instead of those European secular humanists. And that probably explains why the project is happening in Geneva, Switzerland instead of Geneva, Illinois.

If our leadership edge in science and technology seems to be slipping, it may have something to do with a subtle but discernible disdain for reason and science in this country. When the powers that be think it would be great to teach creationism alongside science in our classrooms, we are on a collision course with the dark ages.

It doesn’t have to be that way, we can alter our course but it will take a willingness to expand our concept of God beyond the mercurial anthropomorphic guy in the sky who sends hurricanes to destroy cities that have gay pride parades. Shallow religion offers easy answers to ultimate questions which results in leaders who think they have a direct pipeline to the will of God.

I prefer a deep religion that isn’t afraid of what we might discover as we tackle the ultimate questions that seem beyond our capacity to answer right now. God particles, black holes and mystery are all part of the plan and we have the ingenuity to rise to the challenge of the big questions. After all, we were created in the image and likeness of God so naturally we are going to discover and express those qualities if we give it a chance. That’s where I am placing my faith.