Alice Experiment and Doubting Thomases

Susan Parker, a colleague in the High Court of New Zealand, wore a black dress on September 11, 2008. For me, it was just a typical workday. Little did I realize that Susan had prepared herself had the world ended on that day. With just four people left in the office past 5:00pm, the 50ish lady said that she was relieved that everything seemed okay after the world’s largest particle collider fired off a beam of protons all the way around a 27 km deep tunnel in the boundary of Switzerland and France.

ALICE or "A Large Ion Collider Experiment" is the biggest physics experiment in history with the aim of detecting evidence of extra dimensions, invisible "dark matter" and an elusive particle called the Higgs boson. In layman’s term the scientists want to unravel the truth on how the universe came be – based on the Big Bang theory.

The first major test on September 11 was the result of two decades of work with a staggering bill of US$10 billion. 9,000 physicists around the world have wired themselves to a massive network of 60,000 computers with the intent of gathering and analyzing the data generated from the series of tests.

Cases had been filed in the US District Court in Hawaii and in the European Court of Human Rights to prevent the project from operating. With the first beams of protons already fired, there is no more stopping into the experiment that critics fear would create micro "black holes", subatomic versions of collapsed stars whose gravity is so strong they could suck of life of planet Earth.

Man’s insatiable search for understanding of his being and of his creation has led to many discoveries that have improved humanity; but the increase in human intelligence has gone to a point that there are those who tinker with what is exclusively in the realm of God.

In fact, we are made in God’s own likeness. "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them." (Genesis 1:27) But that seems not enough. Very much like the Apostle Thomas, there are amongst us who want to see, to touch, to smell – to accept the truth. As Christ addressed Thomas so is He telling us. "Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." (John 20:29)

So long as there are people whose doubts can only be quenched if they have gone through the process of experimenting to find the truth, many peoples’ lives will be put at a risk. People like Susan Parker. People like you and me. God, though, assures us: "But I will deliver thee in that day, saith the LORD: and thou shalt not be given into the hand of the men of whom thou art afraid." (Jeremiah 29:17)

by Mel Libre