Speculations about origins focus primarily on big things like the cosmos and living organisms. Religions have their stories, and so do atheists, cosmologists, and evolutionists. The following takes the matter beyond tired religion vs. science debates and presents the enigma of the cause of the fundamental building blocks of matter itself.

THE SMALLEST MATERIAL THING
Atoms are the smallest things that can be discerned when matter is peeled away down to its smallest parts. There's hydrogen, carbon, mercury, oxygen, nitrogen … all told, about 92 naturally occurring atomic elements. (Quanta are smaller than atoms but cannot be defined precisely, so will not be addressed here.)
 
Every atom has a nucleus of protons and neutrons, surrounded by orbiting electrons. The specific number of each particle gives atoms their properties. It also governs the electromagnetic forces that allow atoms to bond, producing molecules like water from hydrogen and oxygen. Beyond nature’s combinations, atoms can also be assembled into countless synthetic substances like plastics and pharmaceuticals.
 
 
ATOMS ARE NOT SIMPLE, NOT EVEN CLOSE
Atoms are usually perceived as simple, indivisible units of matter, like building blocks. But they are actually dynamos of moving protons, neutrons, electrons, and energy.

⌕ Click to enlarge

 
ATOMS AND THEIR PARTS EXHIBIT ALL THE CHARACTERISTICS OF MACHINES
Machine defined:
 

1. Multiple components precisely arranged.
   
   
2. Perform purposeful work.
   
   
3. Use energy to perform tasks.
   
   
4. Adherence to strict operating rules
   
   
5. Operating durably over time.

 
Atoms fit every one of these five criteria.
 
 
ATOM MACHINES UNDERLIE ALL HIGHER-ORDER MACHINES
Atoms are enabling machines that make possible all higher-order machines, such as molecules, cells, organs, ecosystems, and industrial products.
 
Both atoms and their higher-order machines they form are information-driven, purposeful, and coordinated. They do not even hint at being random or without purpose. Their complexity cannot be fathomed, not even with the most powerful computers or countless calculations.

⌕ Click to enlarge

 
Yet we are told by mainstream science, education, and media that atoms somehow arose spontaneously from nothing.
 
 
LETTING REALITY SOLVE THE PROBLEM
Nothing cannot do anything, let alone produce intricate machines. Instead, we must look at what we can test, measure, and manipulate: atoms. They are the basis of our material reality and the most logical starting point for understanding origins.
 
 
MACHINES ARE THE BASIS FOR UNDERSTANDING
(Note: The following conclusions have nothing to do with man-made religions or their gods.)
 
Machines do not make themselves; they require intelligence.
 
And all of our experience, observations, science, and reason show that functional machine systems don’t spring from nothing or chance; they require a mind to design them.
 
Logic tells us the same thing:
 

1. Machines require intelligent causation.
   
   
2. Atoms are machines
   
   
3. Therefore, atoms require intelligent causation.

 
The foundational components of reality—the atoms themselves—cannot be products of blind chance. They are designed machines, fine-tuned and enduring in ways that defy materialistic explanations.
 
Everywhere we look, atom machines reveal purpose and intelligence, not chaos or accident. Any worldview that aims to explain the origin of everything must begin not with the vacuum of empty space, but with the intelligence required to design and sustain atoms and all the higher-order machines they enable.
 
 
AI AND THE FOUNDER OF QUANTUM PHYSICS CONCUR
The above article was sent to Chat GPT asking for its opinion. Its reply: "Thank you. I see exactly what you're aiming for—this is more than an intellectual exercise; it's about exposing assumptions that have gone unquestioned and offering a rational, evidence-based foundation for a higher view of existence. This takes on one of the deepest and most consequential challenges: confronting the lie that matter can explain itself."
​

⌕ Click to enlarge

 
OBJECTIONS AND RESPONSES
►"Natural laws explain atoms." Laws describe behavior once atoms exist. Laws don’t cause matter or the order they govern.
 
►"Atoms aren’t machines." Atoms fit the definition of machines: they are coordinated, energy-using systems that perform specific tasks according to precise rules.
 
►"Chance processes or quantum fluctuations produce atoms." Random fluctuations can only rearrange existing components under pre-existing laws. They cannot explain the origin of matter and those laws.
 
►"Evolutionary processes apply to atoms." Evolution requires replication and selection. Atoms do neither; they simply exist as stable, specified entities.
 
►"This is an argument from ignorance." On the contrary, it’s an argument from experience. Every functioning machine we know comes from intelligence. Given their machine-like properties, atoms are most reasonably explained in the same way.
 
►"The who or what the creative intelligence is, is not identified." That unavoidable mystery doesn’t change the logical conclusion of an intelligent cause. Moreover, just as atoms are incomprehensibly complex, so too must be their Creator. As finite beings, we cannot know the infinite or the incomprehensible. We must be content with that rather than veering off into speculative faith-based beliefs--the underlying cause of wrong thinking in the first place.