THE TOP QUARK?


The World, the Word & You! Broadcast
Commentary by Dennis L. Finnan

How big is your universe? Or shall we say today, how small is your universe? Today scientists, after a long voyage, have reached the shore of a strange new continent. A continent that resides in the sub-nuclear world of matter itself. Where will this lead, and what fantastic discoveries will they find down there? I'm Dennis Finnan, host and speaker for the World, the Word & You! And in a moment, we'll talk about it.

For the common people of whom I am a card-carrying member, the work that physicists do often passes over our heads. However, even the most simple school boy or girl has learned that all things that exist are made up of smaller things in kind. In fact, the study of the world around us and what it is made of, has fascinated mankind for centuries. Why the ancient Greeks themselves theorized that all matter was composed of the tiniest of particles, which they named the "atom." The word in the Greek means "not divisible" and so they thought this fundamental particle was the absolute smallest of all matter. Of course, this was all speculation and for centuries even into our 20th century, this has been believed to be true. But with the advent of the experimental sciences of the 17th & 18th centuries, with the brilliant minds of physicists such as the dynamic Christian Sir Issac Newton, and Dr. John Dalton ¾ these men discovered that the tiny atom was actually composed of smaller particles now known as protons, neutrons and electrons. Further, in the latter part of the last century and with the invention of the electron microscope and other sophisticated devices, theorists soon learned that the atom is not a solid bit of matter incapable of further subdivision. From there, curiosity about the atom and its weight tantalized hundreds of scientists who soon discovered that a single drop of water contained more than a million million billion atoms!

Indeed, the sub-atomic world is a vast new realm to be explored and discovered. And that is what has happened on the long voyage through these uncharted waters, where scientist today say they have discovered the "missing link" of the basic building block of nature. However, before I turn what is a most complicated subject, into what I hope will be an understandable message tied to the Word of God, we'll pause one more time and listen again to another moment of music. Don't go away, what I have to say will surely enrich your mind and touch the spirit of your heart…

…THE TOP QUARK! What can this strange name be? Well, to understand this we'll begin with an elementary lesson in physics. Today, we know that all matter is built upon what we call the atom. We know today that the atom is composed of sub-atomic particles described as protons, neutrons, and electrons. In addition, the mass of the atom is concentrated in its nucleus. The nucleus has a positive charge of electricity, the electrons each have a negative charge, and the protons the positive charge. The charges carried by the electrons add up to the same amount of electricity as resides in the nucleus, and thus, the normal electrical state of the atom is neutral. In 1905 Albert Einstein developed his mass-energy equation, E=mc2 that discovered how to release that neutralized energy in what has become an atomic explosion. Since then, physicists have theorized that these electrically charged particles that make up the atom were possibly composed of even smaller particles. In 1932, two British scientists, Sir John D. Cockcroft, and Ernest Walton, were the first to use artificially accelerated particles to successfully disintegrate the nucleus of the atom. It was then, that man learned there was a whole new subnuclear world never before discovered. Using a crude particle accelerator compared to today's versions, they discovered that striking the nuclei of an atom with energetic particles, new unknown particles appeared. Among them were muons (detected in 1937) and pions (1947). Since then scientists have discovered that in the world of the atom, there are even more strange subnuclear particles known as hadrons, hyperons, mesons, leptons, photons, bosons and now the greatest discovery of the day - QUARKS!

Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, a U.S. Department of Energy national laboratory for research, has for many years been involved in exploring the fundamental nature of matter and energy. Fermilab has the world's most powerful particle accelerator known as the TEVATRON, a four mile circle in which atomic particles are accelerated at almost the speed of light and geared to smash into each other, to break them apart to find out what they are composed of. Well Fermilab scientists, in this last decade were able to discover in the smashing of the protons and antiprotons, that these base elements were themselves composed of what are now called "quarks," what are thought to be the basic building blocks of existence. Six quarks were thought to be part of the standard model, which is a framework of 12 particles thought to form all matter.

Now I hope I'm not losing you. For what these scientists now say they discovered is that the subnuclear world is a whole new continent where even more discoveries are to be made in future days that may explain the very existence of the universe! Now these "quarks," a newly discovered particle of matter, exists only for a possible billionth of second when they collide in an accelerator. Scientist with sophisticated computers cannot see any of the quarks, but they can see their tell-tale electronic signatures left after the explosion. The most illusive of all is the TOP QUARK, which scientists say has to exist, but they could not find it, that is until a few years ago. Finally the TOP QUARK was discovered. Its tell-tale electronic signature was clearly identified by the computer, and the mystery of the six QUARKS existence has been confirmed. Now what does all this mean to you and me?

The answer is, all this leads mankind back to the Bible and what God has said about existence. The Scripture begins by telling the human race,

Genesis 1:1-2 (NIV) "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters."

All that we are discovering today reveals that matter itself, the building block of all existence, did not exist eternally. A supernatural powerful being known as God, created all matter out of nothing we know of. He the Creator, brought it all forth in one dynamic million million billioneth of a second. From there, He began to form matter into various creative existence as we know all life to be today. This process took seven literal or solar days in which the final formation and completion of creative energy ceased. Mankind is just discovering the wonders of God's creation and how intricate is even the tiniest portion of existence. These scientists working with particle accelerators, smashing atomic particles to bits at the speed of light, are discovering whole new worlds characterizing the deep substructure of matter itself.

Amazingly too, no matter what is found and verified, nothing contradicts the infallible, inerrant Word of God. Astoundingly, although written down by over 40 different authors over a period of 2000 years, none of which were physicists and scientists, and none having the technology and science we have today, they were still able to speak of things no man could have know back then. This of course, was done because what they wrote down was not their own or any other man's thoughts ¾ rather it was given to them by divine revelation from the Creator of all matter and life itself (2 Tim. 3:16).

Permit me to quote some fantastic scientific truths found in the bible that today are collaborated by all known forms of science, even the most recent discoveries in the subnuclear world… We read in the Bible,

Jeremiah 33:22 (NIV) "I will make the descendants of David my servant and the Levites who minister before me as countless as the stars of the sky and as measureless as the sand on the seashore.'""

1 Corinthians 15:41 (NIV) "The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor."

Here in the scientific field of astronomy, for centuries mankind assumed the stars in the heavens could be counted. Ptolemy counted 1,056, Johannes Kepler counted 1,005, but God's Word said, before telescopes were even invented, "the stars were countless… and they differed from one another." Scientists today estimate there are more than a hundred-million-billion-billion stars out there meaning of course, they are numberless! In addition, all stars to the naked eye look alike, but our high-powered telescopes today reveal that no two stars are at all alike. Moreover, the Bible says,

Proverbs 8:27 (NIV) "I was there when he set the heavens in place, when he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep,"

Isaiah 40:22 (NIV) "He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in."

The science of Geophysics is affirmed by what God wrote through the prophets long ago. The world for centuries thought our globe was essentially flat. Yet, the Bible said no so! You see, the word "circle" used in Isaiah 4:22 is a Hebrew word that means "sphericity or roundness." Today, all scientists agree with the Bible in its teachings that the earth is round. But more amazingly, what Job records is beyond human knowledge. We read in,

Job 26:7 (NIV) "He spreads out the northern skies over empty space; he suspends the earth over nothing."

Here is no better explanation of the earth existence in space. A fact, no man could have known 4000 years ago. Yet, the Bible confirms what science has only discovered recently in the dated history of man. But friend, there's more. We read in,

Ecclesiastes 1:6-7 (NIV) "The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course. 7 All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again."

The field of hydrology is another one with many biblical confirmations. Solomon wrote 3000 years ago of the most accurate description of the earth's hydrologic cycle. Furthermore, moving to the world and science of biology, the Bible again is flawless. We read in,

Leviticus 17:11 (NIV) "For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one's life."

William Harvey an accomplished scientist in the year 1616, was the first to discover that the essential function of blood is to carry life-giving oxygen, water and food to the body's cells, not to mention the work of combating disease producing organisms, and repairing damaged tissues. Blood is therefore the channel of life. 4000 years ago, Moses knew this by divine revelation from God the Creator of all life. I could go on, but getting back to our theme for today ¾ the discovery of the TOP QUARK, now an even smaller building block of matter ¾ well, the Bible speaks of this in a sense too. We read in Scripture.

Hebrews 1:3 (NIV) "The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. …"

John 1:1-3 (NIV) "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made."
Colossians 1:16-17 (NIV) "For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. "

Now here are told that the world God created, He did so through Jesus Christ. This of course, first of all, confirms that Jesus Christ is God the Creator Himself in human form. Second, it tells us that what we see around us, all matter itself, is composed of things that are visible and "invisible" to the naked eye. The Fermilab collaborators have discovered what the Bible has said all along. Matter is composed of subnuclear particles, so small we are just discovering them.

Thirdly, the Bible tells us that God "holds all things together." Man doesn't know why the atom doesn't simply blow apart, but by some strange force of nature, the atom is a very stable thing. Only now are physicists able to begin exploring this new continent of the subnuclear world, and perhaps find out what the Bible says all along. It is God who created the marvelous vast worlds we live in, whether it is the macro world or the micro world. It is God, who holds all things together, and gives stability to our universe and our world we live in. Now I confess, I'm no physicist, nor do I understand all they are looking into and discovering. But, I know enough to say it confirms for me the validity, accuracy and importance of knowing God's Word.

Say friend, do you know God's Word and its most important message? The Bible says to all of us, that sin has entered the world and death by sin. All of us are perishing and one day we will all be cast into what God calls, the Lake of Fire, a holding place, a penitentiary for sinful unforgiven humanity and fallen angels. There will the vast amounts of humanity that have rejected the overture and claims of Jesus Christ, will reside in suffering and sorrow forever and ever. Yet, the Creator of this universe and all matter including QUARKS, He wants no one to perish. So the Bible says He sent us His Son, Jesus Christ, who before the worlds were called into existence, planned that He would die on a cross as a substitutionary sacrifice for the sins of the entire human race. And, most amazing of all, God has planned that all who accept Christ, that is surrender their lives to His Lordship and Savior-hood ¾ will be forgiven their sins, saved from Hell, and granted a new life in Christ.

Oh friend, have you received Him? Have you opened your heart to Jesus? Have you invited Him in to be your Savior from sin? Only those who do so, will live to enjoy the wonders our scientist are just newly discovering today. Only those who enter the Body of Jesus Christ, by faith in His name, will live on forever and ever in what the Bible calls, the "new heavens and new earth" (2 Peter 3:13) God is going to fashion out of all the protons, neutron, muons and quarks. I trust you will be one who enters in. May the Lord open your heart to marvel at His wondrous creation, and most of all, His blessed redemption provided free-of-charge to all that receive Him. Although researchers claim to have found the missing link of essential matter to understand the universe, this "Top Quark," will never explain the wonders of God's grace in Christ. For that we have the Bible, and the enlightening power of the Spirit of God. I trust you are being enlightened, or have been and now enjoy His marvelous love, care and provision in life. Meanwhile, we can enjoy today's new discoveries, having faith to know none that are true discoveries will ever contradict God's Word. We have a reliable Bible, and all humanity can trust its most precious message ¾ that Christ died for our sins and through this offers everyone who receive Him, eternal life. God grant this to all who are listening today, for Jesus sake, Amen.

 

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RESOURCES:

  • Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Website - http://fnal.gov/

  • "Atom & Atomic Theory" Microsoft Encarta 97 Encyclopedia, copyright 1993-1996 Microsoft Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

  • "The Top Quark," Rochester Post-Bulletin,12/95, Rochester, MN.

 

 

  • Radio talk #1498
  • Broadcast date: April 5, 1998
  • Speaker: Dennis L. Finnan, Commentator
  • Program: The World, the Word & You! Radio Broadcast
  • Address: P.O. Box 575 St. Charles, MN 55972-0575

The World, the Word & You! Broadcast is a non-denominational ministry based on the historic fundamental evangelical interpretation of the Scriptures. A copy of our doctrinal statement is available upon request. These weekly radio commentaries are not exhaustive studies of any particular subject due to the time limit of broadcasting. Actual broadcasts can be heard in selected areas around the nation, as funding provides. Dennis Finnan has been the speaker for over 18 years, and serves as General Director.

These transcripts are available free of charge to all who desire them. Also available are actual radio cassette tapes and printed booklets of each message. A free listing of recent messages is available upon request also.

For further information, reprints, or a listing of all topics, please write to our speaker, Dennis L. Finnan(dennis@wwy.org),or visit our webpage at http://www.wwy.org/