Dark Matter! Why does it matter?  Well, due to the strange and obscure nature of the subject, I think I need to explain upfront where I am going with this article.

Cosmologists, Astronomers, and Physicists are forever seeking God in the very small or the very old. Of course, they would not call their quest an attempt to find God, but they would probably concede that they are searching for the origins of physical reality. For most spiritual people, this quest would equate to a clumsy search for God, because he alone is the source of reality. The essential difference between the scientific and the spiritual approach to the quest is that scientists use only physical and natural methods, while spiritual people employ metaphysical and supernatural means of encountering God.

A current example of the scientific search for reality in the news recently is the hunt to find and define Dark Matter and Dark Energy. In this article, I want to state and support my view that God will not be ‘found’ in the belly of The Large Hadron Collider, nor through the lens of The James Webb Space Telescope. However, he will be found by anyone who seeks for him spiritually and not materially.’ “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord” (Jeremiah 29:13-14).

What are Dark Matter and Dark Energy?

It is invisible and all forms of light seem to pass through it as though it’s completely transparent. However, it does seem to have mass.

So, Dark Matter is the name ascribed to the invisible and undetectable matter making up the bulk of the known universe, and Dark Energy is the mysterious power that causes matter to move apart in all directions. Say what? Yes indeed! They constitute the unknown, unseen, inexplicable ‘stuff’ that makes up the bulk of the physical creation and the energy that animates it. They are essential parts of a grand hypothetical model of reality.

I am not a fan of hypothetical scientific models. For decades scientists were convinced that everything in the universe originated in a ‘Big Bang’ that occurred sometime back when time was not yet time. Then a new theory emerged called the Steady State model, which holds that the universe has no beginning or end but remains much the same throughout time. Sir Fred Hoyle said that the Big Bang theory ‘is an irrational process that cannot be described in scientific terms … [nor] challenged by an appeal to observation’. Big Bang or Steady State, but guess what, now there is a new theory … Black Hole cosmology. This is a cosmological model in which the observable universe is thought to be the interior of a black hole. My, my, my! I am confused – how about you? But wait, there’s more!

The other day, I read an article on how researchers are adapting the Large Hadron Collider under the Alps to detect Dark Matter. The Collider is the world’s biggest machine spanning a 27-kilometre circuit and is used to smash subatomic particles together at close to the speed of light. The result of this is the production, for a millionth of a second, of subatomic particles called bosons, quarks, leptons, and even one called the ‘God particle’, a boson they think might have caused the Big Bang. The idea now is that if they can make a magnifying lens strong enough, and attach that to the Hadron Collider, then particles of Dark Matter will suddenly become observable.

Another Scientific Approach

If Dark matter is the original ingredient of physical reality, then another scientific endeavour would be to hunt down its origin. Enter the James Webb Space Telescope. This strangely flower-like apparatus allows astronomers and others to see into the primordial past of the universe. It acts as a sort of reverse-only time machine. Let me explain as best as I, as a non-scientist, can.

Light takes a defined time to reach us from anywhere in the universe, and so what we see of any star is what it looked like in the past. Hubble and the James Webb space telescope have allowed us to see distant stars. These distant stars emitted the light we now see a very, very long time ago.

So, the idea is that if we can look back in time far enough, we will eventually be able to witness the Big Bank itself.

What would this achieve? It would, I suppose, ‘prove’ that our universe started with a mighty explosion of energy (the Big Bang), unless we actually are living on the inside of a black hole, and unless the Steady State theory was right all along. What it definitely will not find is … God. He is beyond time, space and even the spiritual realm, and, as I have said, is only perceived by those to whom reveals himself. So then, best we turn to him for a revelation of origins and creation principles.

God’s Explanation

God-Particle be dammed, my faith is based on what God himself has revealed and not on what physicists dream up. The biblical revelation is as follows:

• God said ’Let there be …’ light, matter, and life (Genesis 1)
• ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men’. (John 1:1-4)
• ‘He [Jesus] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. 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. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.’ (Colossians 1:15-17)

God is Spirit, not matter, and certainly not Dark Matter, and his spiritual power is the energy that creates and holds all things in Heaven and on Earth together.

Humans cannot find God unless he reveals himself to them: “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord.” (Jeremiah 29:13-14) Scientists, of any discipline, cannot find God for he ‘alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and might forever. Amen’ (1 Timothy 6:16).

I used to think that science could at least discover how God does things, but I can see that is also limited. We can discover, measure, and record, some of the ways in which God works, but not all. “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9). I have said this many times, but it is worth repeating; we are three-dimensional creatures living within the fourth dimension of time, but the spiritual and heavenly realms are multi-dimensional and timeless. How then can we comprehend, let alone scientifically evaluate, that which is spiritual?

I Am Not Anti-science

Despite the tone of this article, I am not anti-science and certainly not opposed to scientists. They are potentially important in helping us live better while we are in the physical realm. I use the word ‘potential’ because not all scientific advancement is beneficial to progress. Some of the results of scientific endeavours do more harm than good – the atomic bomb, weaponised AI, designer drugs etc.

Conclusion

So where am I going with all this? To remind us all, in this very technical and post-enlightenment world, that

God is the source of all matter, energy, and life; that he is the personal creator of all that is; and that he has revealed himself to us through both his written Word and Jesus Christ, his self-manifested living Word.

Science is useful, to a point, but is no substitute for spiritual reality or spiritual endeavours. The Big Bang did not give birth to the universe – God did. Dark Matter and Dark Energy are feeble imaginary substitutes for spiritual power and substance. Telescopes and Hadron Accelerators can only reveal what is already there and do not create anything other than hypotheses and wildly imaginative models of reality. There is a reality greater than the ‘material’ and that is the ‘spiritual’, and there is a prime reality beyond even that, and that is God Almighty himself. We find him and his ways, not through technology or science, but through his self-revelation. The bible provides us with much, but God’s ultimate self-revelation is in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. He, and he alone, is ‘the image of the invisible God’ and ‘all the fullness of the Deity in bodily form’ (Colossians 1:15 and 2:9).