After I published my last post about CERN, people started sending me even more information arguing for this. As I was looking through some of this material, I wound up clicking on a link to this tragic story. It is about a girl who took her life in 2008 because of conspiracy theories about CERN. She was anxious about the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. She was convinced that it might cause the end of the world. This happened in India, and evidently, several news agencies there had run sensational stories reporting this as a serious possibility.
Before she died … she had been worried by the doomsday predictions.
She said she had watched programmes suggesting the Big Bang experiment might cause a great earthquake and great holes.
“She said she could not bear to see the destruction of all that was dear to her.”
“Girl suicide ‘over Big Bang fear,'” http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7609631.stm, September 11, 2008.
Conspiracy Theories Can Have Dreadful Consequences
I took a frivolous tone in my last post on this subject. But this serves as a reminder that spreading misinformation can have dreadful consequences.
In fact, perpetuating falsehood like these conspiracy theories is a violation of the Eighth Commandment (Exodus 20:16)!
Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord,
but those who act faithfully are his delight.
Proverbs 12:22
Conspiracy Theories about CERN on SkyWatch News
There is a shocking irony to all of this. I became aware of this story about the girl’s suicide in a sensationalized news-story published by a Christian media agency. What they do with her death to perpetuate their own conspiracy theories is simply ghoulish.
It did not help that the LHC was named after the Hindu destroyer of worlds “Shiva”, a fact that prompted a teenage girl in India … to commit suicide.[iv]
Notice how SkyWatch has put footnotes in their story. This provides an illusion of research and substance. But when you follow the notes to their sources, they don’t always say what SkyWatch says they do. For instance, the BBC story about the suicide doesn’t mention Shiva at all. But SkyWatch says that the LHC is named after him (it’s not). And it says that this is what provoked her to take her own life. When facts are not at hand to support their conspiracy theories, they generate them.
I find this to be very disturbing, even sacrilegious. To twist the facts for the sake of producing garbage click-bait articles like the one in question is already immoral. To spice up a fake story about conspiracy theories with a family’s tragedy is journalistic grave-digging.
“What Do We Know from the Bible about Additional Dimensions?”
SkyWatch includes a half-hour video on this story’s page. It is basically a long advertisement for a book-length version of the sensationalism in this news story. In the video they contribute to more of the strange theology that accompanies their conspiracy theories.
At about 4 minutes, it starts to get really strange, at least from the perspective of biblical theology. Derek Gilbert is the guy in charge of the whole thing. He asks his researchers, “What do we know from the Bible about additional dimensions?” One of the researchers, Josh Peck, responds. “The term ‘extra-dimensional’ and the term ‘spiritual’ are pretty much synonymous when we talk about the spiritual realm or the spirit world or even heaven. That’s what physicists are talking about when they say extra dimensions. It’s the same thing, just looking at it from different angles.”
But this isn’t what the Bible means by “spirit” at all. In fact, “spirit” or “spiritual” can mean a handful of different things in the Scriptures. But I am certain that “extra-dimensional” simply isn’t one of these categories. This is what happens when you try to map science-fiction onto the Bible. It doesn’t work.
I suspect physicists would take just as much umbrage at the suggestion that “extra dimensions” really means “the spirit world.”
Spirits Do Not Exist in Another Material Dimension
I talked about this in my last post. There is nothing physical about “spirit.” There is nothing there for physics to measure or manipulate or interact with. It doesn’t matter how far down you get into the molecular level. Nor does it matter how many dimensions you propose for the material world around you. The spiritual world and the physical world are two completely different things.
To put it a bit differently, spirits don’t exist in a different material dimension. So, no, what theologians mean by spirit and what physicists mean by extra dimensions are not “the same thing.”
CERN and Lots and Lots of Gods in Christian Conspiracy Theories
There are plenty of other sensationalist errors and imprecisions on this page. I have seen many of these elsewhere in my strange journey into the bowels of these conspiracy theories. They propose that “CERN” is actually a nod to an ancient Celtic deity, “Cernunnos.” They also focus on the statue of Shiva on the grounds of CERN. Shiva and Cernunnos then become a point of analogy with all kinds of other deities.
Shiva has been compared to Dionysus, another fertility god associated with vegetation, forest, streams, and dancing—powers also attributed to Cernunnos. … Dionysus … is a type of beast-god (one who inspires his followers to behave as “beasts”…. As with Osiris and Nimrod, Dionysus journeyed to the underworld—in this case, to rescue his mother. Semele is yet another moon goddess, and she fits the Semiramis/Isis/Danu/Diana model.
One thing I have to confess: SkyWatch provides an impressive chain of associations. It all reminds me of this.
Saint-Genis-Pouilly, the Portal to Hell? Christian Conspiracy Theories Say Yes
SkyWatch also finds significance in the place names associated with CERN. Part of the facility butts up against the town Saint-Genis-Pouilly. According to SkyWatch, “Pouilly” refers to Apollo, and this relates to “Apollyon.” We read about this demon in Revelation 9.
Apollyon in Revelation 9
And the fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given the key of the shaft of the bottomless pit; 2 he opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the shaft rose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft.
3 Then from the smoke came locusts on the earth, and they were given power like the power of scorpions of the earth; 4 they were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any green growth or any tree, but only those of mankind who have not the seal of God upon their foreheads; 5 they were allowed to torture them for five months, but not to kill them, and their torture was like the torture of a scorpion, when it stings a man. 6 And in those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, and death will fly from them.
7 In appearance the locusts were like horses arrayed for battle; on their heads were what looked like crowns of gold; their faces were like human faces, 8 their hair like women’s hair, and their teeth like lions’ teeth; 9 they had scales like iron breastplates, and the noise of their wings was like the noise of many chariots with horses rushing into battle. 10 They have tails like scorpions, and stings, and their power of hurting men for five months lies in their tails. 11 They have as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit; his name in Hebrew is Abad′don, and in Greek he is called Apol′lyon.
Revelation 9:1-11, RSV
The Jura Mountains in Christian Conspiracy Theories
Apart from tenuous geographical and pagan connections, a lot of what SkyWatch says in this article is just bizarrely wrong. Saint-Genis-Pouilly sits in the foothills of the Jura Mountains. SkyWatch says that this is appropriate. Supposedly, “Jura” comes from an Old Norse word meaning “beast.” “Dionysus, Cernunnos, and, to a degree, Osiris are all ‘beast’ gods.” Plus, “if this CERNunnos Illuminati experiment succeeds, it will open the gateway to a beast.”
And then, in the very same paragraph (!!!!) the author says that “Jura” actually “refers to the Latin word for ‘law.'” This allows the author to invoke even more pagan deities.
This is another reflection of the ancient goddess Columbia, Athena, Maat, Themis, Dike, and all those who are “Lady Justice,” a deity that weighs our souls in the balance. The Jura Mountains loom over the CERN campus like ancient judges who oversee the construction and implementation of the new Babylon Portal.
But the truth is, “Jura” has a well-known and simple etymology. “Jura” actually just comes from the Celtic root jor-, “forest” (Hölder, H. 1964. Jura – Handbuch der stratigraphischen Geologie, IV. Enke-Verlag, 603 pp, 158 figs, 43 tabs; Stuttgart).
Apollyon Is Not Apollo!
Stretching the Limits of Etymology
More fun with names follows in the article. Apollo emerges as a really important figure for SkyWatch because of the supposed connection of Saint-Genis-Pouilly with that god. SkyWatch and others tell us that the ancient, Roman name of this town was “Apolliacum.” The Romans are supposed to have established it as a cult-center for Apollo. (The only information on Apolliacum that I can find is from sites pushing the CERN conspiracy theory. If anyone knows anything more about this and can help me out, I’d really appreciate it).
The truth is, the Greeks did indeed eventually associate Apollo’s name with the Greek word for destruction in ancient, popular etymology. And this word provides the same root for “Apollyon” in Revelation 9:11. But SkyWatch connects non-existent dots, and produces this stunner. “Apollo, or Apollyon, is listed in the book of Revelation as belonging to the king of the hybrid-fallen angel creatures that rise up from the pit—Abyss—when it is unsealed.”
Apollyon is Satan
No! Apollyon is not Apollo. In the Church Fathers, there is general consensus that this is just another name for Satan, “Destruction.” See, for instance, Alcuin of York’s commentary on this passage. But SkyWatch News introduces a whole, bizarre mythology into scripture interpretation that rivals anything that Stan Lee ever dreamed up. SkyWatch wraps up this story with another bizarre theory. They say that what is happening in Revelation is actually a reanimation of Nimrod. He is the mighty hunter of Genesis 10:8, who tradition associates with the Tower of Babel. Supposedly, according to SkyWatch, Nimrod is the inspiration for mythological figures as diverse as Apollo, Gilgamesh, Cernunnos, and Osiris. And none other than this same Nimrod is “returning as king of the locusts (hybrid fallen angels) from the pit!” So, the real villain of Revelation is not Satan, but Nimrod redivivus.
Hybrid Fallen Angels
Oh, did you notice those “hybrid fallen angels”? That’s part of another elaborate science fiction theory that they have introduced into biblical interpretation. I don’t want to mess with much of that here. But to sum up, SkyWatch builds up a whole, complicated doctrine of angel/human hybrids from one verse, Genesis 6:4. They propose that angels have conducted genetic experiments by introducing their own genetic code into the human race. Genesis 6:4 is a difficult passage that I might deal with at another time. Suffice it to say, whatever the intent of the Bible, it can’t mean angels were introducing their DNA into humans. Angels don’t have DNA.
Knowing a Little Bit of Hebrew Can Be Worse than Knowing No Hebrew
Like most modern biblical mistakes, this one involves a misunderstanding of a Hebrew word. SkyWatch News knows how to use Strong’s Concordance, evidently, but they don’t know how to use it well. So, while developing their crazy Nimrod theory, they observe something in Genesis 10:8. It tells us that “Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth” (KJV). They observe that that phrase “began to be” comes from the Hebrew root chalal. But then they draw a wrong, completely nutty conclusion. They say that chalal “implies sexual profanity or genetic pollution—and a process. … Nimrod most likely was a product of a profane mating of fallen angel (god) and human.”
True enough, the root meaning of chalal has to do with pollution or profanation. And it can have a sexual meaning. But, as in all languages, Hebrew words develop their own senses through history. These are often quite different from the roots that they began with. When chalal appears in the hiphil stem, it often has nothing to do with pollution. It usually simply means “to begin.”
Here is a good example, from Deuteronomy 3:24. “O Lord God, thou hast only begun to show thy servant thy greatness and thy mighty hand; for what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do such works and mighty acts as thine?” If we read sexual profanation into Genesis 10:8, we’ll have to do the same with Deuteronomy 3:24. (And the same is true of scores of other verses). I don’t think that anyone wants to suggest that God is doing anything kinky with Moses in Deuteronomy 3:24.
Conclusion
Christians, we don’t have any business perpetuating this kind of falsehood. We are making a laughingstock of ourselves by giving this sort of sensationalism a podium. We are distracting ourselves from matters that are more worthy of our attention. Worst of all, we could be endangering the lives, or at least the quality of life, of sensitive souls. Some people agitate themselves with this sort of thing. St. Paul tells us that love rejoices in the truth (1 Corinthians 13:6). If the love of Christ fills us, it should draw us to truth and repel us away from lies. Maybe we find ourselves occupied with sensationalist pseudo-news and fake theology. If so, we need to examine to what extent His love reigns in us.
