"Why we exist"

I opened the Yahoo main page this morning and the headline, accompanied by a brilliant cellestial picture, said "Discovery may explain why we exist." Naturally, I had to read more... not because I was dying to know why we exist, but because I wanted to know what scientific discovery could possibly try to explain it. There was some scientific jargon about the Standard Model of particle physics, and matter and antimatter (what in the world is antimatter??), and the epic struggle for universal domination between matter and antimatter... sounded more like Star Wars VII: The Conquest of Matter.

As science-fictiony-impressive as all this sounded, I couldn't help but wonder if any of the scientists stopped to ask: "Where did matter come from?" The scientists are so impressed that they invented this mega-machine that collides - their word in the article was "smashes" - matter and antimatter together... if there really was this collision of particles in the beginning of time, what smashed them together then?

It seems to me that these people are not so interested in understanding why we exist, as they are in how they can become God and create their own matter. Kind of like the people who tried to build the Tower of Babel... and we all know how that worked out. The Tower of Babel was a result of people not wanting to accept that God is all-powerful, people wanting desperately to have some claim on spiritual achievement through physical means. If they were just in relationship with God - if they had only turned to him instead of shutting their ears and trying to do things their own way - they would have realized that the God of the universe reaches down to be with us, and that unity with him cannot be achieved through global unity but through him alone.

This Tevatron Collider and its magnificent display of smashing tiny things together is also a result of people not wanting to accept that God is all-powerful: if we as humans can accomplish something that previously was believed to be impossible, then that makes God a little less "god-like" and us a little more. And again, if they were just in relationship with God - if they were really seeking the meaning of our existence rather than trying to duplicate it - they would have realized that the God of the universe did not need a machine or matter or even antimatter, because he simply spoke and that was enough. Our universe - and any other universes beyond - are a product of his word. Even if this battle between particles existed, it is because God spoke those particles into existence and set them on the path to collision. And what does that reveal about why we exist? Do we exist to smash into each other and create more matter? That makes no sense! We exist for the pleasure and praise and glory of Him who created us in the first place!

What a discovery that would be, if only these scientists would turn away from their machines and look to the Lord who holds all the answers.