Troubled by neutrinos

Love is in the air we breathe

Think back to high school science. Atoms make up everything. And what are atoms made of? Protons, neutrons (except for hydrogen), and electrons. But we’re not at the bottom just yet.

Protons and neutrons are each made up of 3 quarks. Light is composed of photons. And there are bosons, muons, gluons, 3 varieties of neutrinos, and goodness knows what else I’ve left out.

All of these are ridiculously small, but one elementary particle in particular takes the cake. Neutrinos are so small, they almost have no mass at all. They’re created in the core of stars, including our sun. Trillions of them bombard the earth every second, and because they’re tiny, most of them zip right through the earth like a bullet through a marshmallow.

All of which is pretty cool, but it makes me wonder: How did God do that?

There’s a famous Farside cartoon where God is rolling out snakes from clay, just like we used to do as kids. “Boy, these things are a cinch!” says God.

Real snakes are not just rolls of clay, of course. They are living bio-chemical miracles, even though many people would rather not get close enough to appreciate God’s handiwork. (I happen to love snakes, as many of my friends know.)

Here’s where I’m going. I know some very smart people. I know people who build missiles, people who make computers do their bidding, people who can take apart languages that have never been written, people who can repair the tiny, fragile structures that make the human body work. I’ve read about Einstein and Newton and Turing, I’ve listened to Mozart and Bach, I’ve learned about the human mind through Dr. Oliver Sacks. There are so many bright people, geniuses. And yet, I’ve never heard of anyone who understood everything.

Except God. Whoever or whatever God is, he created all of this, known and unknown, the understood and the mysterious, by “speaking” a “word,” according to Genesis. Of course, speech and words may not even be necessary for such a being as God, who has no body as we think of bodies, who lives beyond time as we experience time.

Whatever God is, he conceived of neutrinos and created them. Whatever God is, he conceived of this universe and created it. Whatever God is, he conceived of you and me and created us, and snakes, and puppies, and tulips, and clouds, and sunshine.

The creative part of this being we call God astounds me because I like creating things, too. I have a small workshop where I make things out of wood. Sometimes they come out pretty good, sometimes they end up in the trash. When everything works, I feel satisfaction and pride. Over the course of many decades, I’ve developed some skill with shaping wood, and it’s satisfying.

What does God “feel” when he sees all he has created here? The Bible says that this God looks at us, his creatures, and feels love.

I don’t have the faintest idea about how God created neutrinos. I don’t know why God created me. Except, love. Love has something to do with it, maybe everything to do with it. God loves and God wants his love to draw us into a relationship of love with himself.

If the Bible is right, all of creation, spoken into existence by this being we know as God, started out as a project built on love. Neutrinos exist ultimately because of love. You exist because of love, God’s love. We are pierced through moment by moment by trillions of neutrinos and don’t feel a thing. We are immersed in the love of God moment by moment, without realizing how blessed we are.

Whatever God is, love is at the mysterious center and invites us to reach up, connect, experience, delight, and worship.