La recherche de l’Organisation Européenne pour la Recherche Nucléaire (CERN)

by admin

At 9:15am this morning CERN, L’Organisation Européenne pour la Recherche Nucléaire,began tests with its Large Hadron Collider (LHC) to discover more about the proposed, and broadly accepted, Big Bang Theory. According to Cern’s Director-General Robert Aymar: “Whatever discoveries it brings, mankind’s understanding of our world’s origins will be greatly enriched.” Such events as this one resurrect the old battle worn illusion of Science vs Religion. What can those apologists amongst us say in response to the claim that such an experiment is a Dawkins-esque attack on religion?

I’m only addressing this question because it seems that it’s quite a common one at the moment…not that there’s too much to worry about. It is probable that there are scientists working in CERN on the LHC which see the speculated outcome, the discovery of the ‘Higgs Boson’ or ‘God Particle’, as some sort of proof that existence is somehow random and that a Creator does not exist. I would suggest however that this in no way represents the inspiration of CERN as an organisation or even as a group of individuals.

If the ‘God Particle’ is found by the 10,000 scientists analyzing the collected data, mankind will have come one step closer to recognising the Big Bang as the road to creation. This does not touch St. Thomas Aquinas’ Unmoved Mover however. This does not explain how something came from nothing. Just how something came from something else.

The tests which began this morning will continue for some months when, it is hoped, CERN’s technicians will be in a position to really test Fr. Georges Lemaître’s Big Bang Theory. This theory suggests that 15 billion years ago an unimaginably dense and hot object the size of a small coin exploded in what was then a void, spewing out matter that expanded rapidly to create what we now know as the Universe. In the coming months CERN will attempt to simulate this event by sending two particle beams along an underground tunnel. Their collision in an atmosphere of -300°C, the coolest place in the Universe, will imitate what is thought to have been the moment when our Universe began. The Higgs Boson is proposed as the answer to how matter gains mass. Their discovery can take us back 15 billion years….but not quite to creation itself.

Since the days of Pope Pius XII the Church has highlighted the link between Lemaître’s theory and the long held belief in creatio ex nihilo (discussed here). The Church, as Lemaître’s patron, has always supported the attainment of knowledge. Gerard Manley Hopkins SJ wrote: “The World is charged with the grandeur of God”. Any exploration of this World is surely for His greater glory.

Wednesday, September 10th, 2008 and is filed under Science, Views on News.