If we are tearing matter apart in accelerators, why can't they reverse the process? Apply energy at one end and take matter out of the other. When energy first changed to matter in the Big Bang, matter must have first started as particles and then grew into atoms?
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It is inaccurate to say that we are "tearing matter apart" in accelerators. We are just changing particles into other particles. If we smash 2 protons, the collision excites various quantum fields and gives rise to multiple other particles. This happens because the energy of the incoming protons is used to create the outgoing particles. Both energies (of the "in" and "out" particles) are the same.
You cannot have "pure energy" and turn this into "matter". You can have particles (which have energy) and change them into other particles (which also have energy).
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