The Big Bang: Coming Soon to an Apocalypse Near You

Physics-hadron_collider-cern_ttn
OK, to begin with, I'm no scientist. It wasn't one of my best subjects in high school or college. I distinctly remember a lab test in "Earth Science" where there were 26 black rocks in a box and we were supposed to identify them all. After "anthracite" and "bitumunus" coal, I was pretty much out of luck. I got a History major "C" on that one (which means I was at least creative in my guessing).

Anyway, I was intrigued by today's news that scientists in Europe are trying to replicate the "Big Bang" that may or may not have begun the universe. Apparently, they're all down in a 17 mile-long tunnel complex underneath the border of France and Switzerland cranking up something called "The Large Haldron Collider" that fires atoms from one side to another, hoping that they'll connect and cause some kind of, well, "event." Sounds a bit like something the guys on Mythbusters would try if they had the budget.

This is a big deal in the scientific community, but there are skeptics who think that the whole thing could go wrong and spark a new wave of superhero humans who defy gravity and collide into things really fast…nah, that's just my over-comic-booked imagination (which is probably why I didn't like science–it wasn't anything like the stuff Bruce Banner or Bruce Wayne or any other Bruce was doing in order to have super powers). Seriously, though, skeptics do think that it's possible that messing with these atoms could cause black holes to form that would get stuck in earth's gravity and then get sucked into the center of the earth where they could eat the planet from the inside out. Seriously.

Sounds like a Jerry Bruckheimer movie. Can you see Bruce Willis as a nuclear scientist? But I digress…

From the article in the Salt Lake Tribune this morning, though, comes the absolute best line from scientist Shane Larson, addressing the possible danger: "I'm pretty sure hundreds of us didn't do this wrong. As scientists we're often not good at communicating about things that can cause a lot of fear, but these fears are unfounded."

Translation: We're messing with the fabric of the universe, and we're all pretty smart, so just trust us.

I wonder what God thinks about all this? I mean, wouldn't be the ultimate irony that humanity destroyed the earth trying to replicate something only God could do?

I don't think it'll happen, but it's worth thinking about. And, just in case, anybody got Bruce Willis on speed dial?

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