ID and the Large Hadron Collider Scare

2008.10.05   prev     next

When the first atom bomb was about to be set off at the Trinity test site, the scientists working on the project joked that maybe it would destroy the entire state, or even rip the atmosphere off the planet, killing off all complex animal life. They even took bets on the subject — although the point of such a bet seems a little perplexing when the people participating in the bet would die if the bet went one way and not the other.

Before the Large Hadron Collider was turned on a week or two ago, a lot of amusing stories abounded that it might destroy Earth. Or maybe even the whole universe. And of course when it was fired up, nothing like that happened.

Many ID proponents want to believe that ID supports their religion’s concepts of a loving, caring God who watches over each one of us. The evidence suggests instead that our designers care about as much for me (as an individual) as I would care about a single bee if I worked on a honey farm. In other words, not much.

But the evidence for ID does pretty conclusively show that our designers care about the success of humanity as a species. Super-finely tuned physical laws make it possible for us to survive, thrive, develop technology, and scientifically study the universe around us. A specially tuned “cradle” planet exists, on which we can thrive with no technology, while we develop the technologies required to eventually thrive on other (much tougher) planets. Vast quantities of energy are accessible right here on our planet — but not so accessible that Joe Blow McVeigh can build a city-killer in his garage.

And evolution can be left out of this equation if that is your preference. Like Dinesh D’Souza or Michael Dowd, you can welcome strong evidence of a designed universe, disregard strong evidence of designed biology, and still come to all the conclusions mentioned above.

So it seems a pretty safe bet that humanity isn’t going to obliterate itself — because it can’t. Our designers most likely set us up to periodically fight each other, but not to be capable of killing ourselves off as a species. The evidence of ID suggests it’s a pretty safe bet that no particle experiments are going to rip apart space-time, or create a tiny black hole that will consume Earth. Even if I were situated comfortably outside this universe, I would be willing to place all my money on the proposition that a tiny black hole wouldn’t consume Earth — it would just behave as a weird little particle. Or if it could suck up the planet, then it can’t be created on Earth. My best guess is that tiny black holes are altogether impossible, because the “singularity” at the center of a black hole is mythological — it’s really a tight mess of spazzing fundamental particles held together by immense gravity, and such a construct can’t exist without a certain, critical mass which simply isn’t available on Earth (or certainly not inside any particle collider).

And if your preference also goes against the evidence for a designed universe? Fine. Think of it this way: If it’s possible to obliterate the planet (or the whole universe) with a particle collider, then it’s going to happen. Somebody will do it. Perhaps even within your lifetime. So if you care about long-term scientific progress, you may as well operate on the assumption that humanity can’t be wiped out by any of its experiments. Bet your theories on “can’t,” because if “can” is correct, then your theories soon will be obliterated anyway.

Update 2009.11.13 — This article casts doubts on the idea that LHC-produced black holes could harm Earth.