Atoms Display the Brilliance of God

“For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.” -Colossians 1:16

Did you know approximately 7 billion billion billon atoms are in your body? This number is virtually incomprehensible to the mind. To give you a mental picture of how incredibly small atoms are, imagine picking up a grain of sand at a beach. That grain comprises more atoms than the number of grains of sand on the entire beach.

Today, with a scanning tunneling microscope, we can take individual atoms and create images. The most famous example is the Japanese characters for “atom” were written with iron atoms on a copper surface. If all the words in the Library of Congress – 35 million books, occupying 840 miles, were written in letters the size of these Japanese characters, they would fit within a radius of a pencil eraser.

You might think the world we know can’t get any smaller, but it does. Within each atom, there are subatomic particles: electrons, protons, and neutrons. Protons and neutrons also have elementary particles that exist within them called quarks.

And electrons are crucially important because they determine how strongly atoms hold its electrons. For example, if electrons had a smaller charge, atoms would not be stable. On the other hand, if electrons had too great of a charge, atoms wouldn’t be able to form compounds and exchange and share their electrons. Without this diversity, life would not be possible.

Contrary to popular belief, the natural world cries out the brilliance of God. The sophistication, artistry, and complexity of the atomic world should turn any skeptic into an ardent worshipper of God. Unfortunately, despite all the evidence, people still deny the existence of their Maker. I do not pretend to understand the mind of a skeptic, but if I were a scientist in the natural world, my belief in God would be stronger than it is today.

When Jesus told his followers that even if “one were to rise from the dead” people would still be doubtful (Lk. 16:31). In other words, Jesus told the rich man that extraordinary events are not enough to convince a person the truth concerning God.

As I study Chemistry and immerse myself into the natural world, I find it to be more extraordinary than a physical resurrection from the dead. To sit here on a computer as a human being composed of billions and billions of atoms while writing letters in a logical sequence (that hopefully makes sense to my readers), blows my mind. Wow. God exists. To convince me otherwise would be a hard endeavor.

If you doubt God, study science. Explore the natural world. Think logically. I will end with Jeremiah 29:13. “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” God bless you.