MATTER/DARK MATTER – DOES IT MATTER?

What is matter anyway? Einstein theorized that all matter is simply constructed from energy. Does that make sense to you? We think of objects in the terms of the whole. Certainly, we understand that a car, for example, is constructed from many parts, but where is the energy? If two cars collide, pieces of the car are scattered in the area. There is also sound and a certain amount of light and heat associated with the collision. Sound is really energy traveling through the air, and if loud enough it can cause damage. We usually can understand that heat is energy; who has not been cold in a very overcast day, only to be warmed if the sun suddenly breaks through the clouds and sunlight hits us. So, light, too, is a form of energy traveling through the air.  

Back to the wrecked car that is now in pieces. We pick up a piece of metal, which is now simply a mass of iron, or maybe aluminum, with, perhaps, a few other metal s mixed in. We pick up a piece of glass, which is silicon. We pick up a piece of plastic, and know it is made of carbon and oxygen, maybe with a few other constituents. All of these elements are much too small to see individuals, but working together they form a solid piece called matter.

Now we take our car pieces to a laboratory. It takes some pretty elaborate equipment, but we separated and look at a few element atoms. We discover that each atom consists of a positively charged nucleus and surrounding negatively charged electrons. We also discover that the nucleus is actually made up of positively charged electrons. The only real difference between our iron, aluminum, silica, carbon, and oxygen atoms is the number of positive electrons in the nucleus!

The number of laboratories in the world that can go farther begins to decrease, but we can actually continue breaking down the wrecked car pieces. We find, for example, that the oxygen nucleus is about five femtometers in diameter. I don’t know about you, but I can’t think that small! I can think down to one millimeter, because a ruler is divided to that extent. However, there are 1 billion femtometers in one millimeter! (I can’t think that large either!) The electrons are only about one hundredth of the size of the nucleus. Yet, now equipment exists to study the properties of electrons, and it turns out they are made up of even smaller particles. So far as I know, there is only one lab in the world that can study these smaller particles by causing them to collide at near the speed of light. When this happens, they are, basically, dissipated into energy!

Conclusion: Einstein was correct and matter is nothing more and nothing less than organized energy!

What about the so-called dark matter? Astrophysical measurements and calculations during recent years indicate there is something in the universe that can’t be seen or measured in any way. It has been labeled “dark matter,” but what is it? How does it differ from solid matter? 

Matter can be seen, felt, and measured, but is it really solid? What is “solid” matter, anyway?  It has been concluded that matter is nothing but energy, but matter sure feels solid! It feels solid simply because the energy is organized, and the organization is controlled by a balance between attractive and repulsive forces. For example, gravity is simply a convenient way to express the attractive forces between bodies. We stay on the surface as a result of repulsive forces between bundles of energy. If this balance were to disappear we would either migrate to the center of earth or fly off into space. In either case we would likely disintegrate into our component energy. 

 Returning to dark matter, apparently, these attractive and repulsive forces do not exist. As a result, there is nothing to reflect light and therefore nothing to see, either visibly or with any instrument currently available. Were we to touch this dark matter, our hand would pass through it and we would never know it was there. Likewise, it could be constantly passing through us unknown. We do know there are cosmic particles that pass right through the earth unchanged without having any effect on it.

One can only conclude that dark matter may be no more and no less than a collection of unorganized energy. It could be left-over energy from the beginning, or it might be the result of some matter having been annihilated.

Thus, whatever its source and make-up, whether dark matter matters depends on its role in the universe (and, of course, whether funding agencies feel it important enough to provide scientists with the funds necessary for its study).

The greatest questions are: 1. What is the source of all this energy?  2. How would it have appeared suddenly into nothingness? And, greatest of all, 3. How would this energy have spontaneously become organized into our universe’s many forms of matter?

{Additional comments on this subject can be found in “Scripture Versus Science: Reconciling God’s Ancient Wisdom With a Modern World View.”}