In Search of the God Particle

That’s the title of an article on the Newsweek website which talks about the preparations for a grand particle physics experiment scheduled to begin this summer at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Switzerland. Apparently the experiment is aimed at finding traces of an elusive sub-atomic particle dubbed the Higgs boson.

The Higgs boson is a theoretical particle that has never been observed but is predicted to exist by the Standard Model of particle physics. It is the only particle in the Standard Model which has not yet been observed.

The hope is that verifying the existence of the Higgs boson would be a major step toward that Holy Grail of physics, a Grand Unified Theory which ties together the four fundamental forces, electromagnetism, gravity, the strong nuclear force and the weak nuclear force.

However we’re talking about Newsweek here which is a publication that needs to appeal to the American masses. Those masses know nothing about, and couldn’t care less about, particle or theoretical physics. Besides, they probably wouldn’t have the education nor the intelligence to follow any reasonable description anyway.

Religion on the other hand, that’s different. That’s a topic near to the hearts of the unwashed trailer park masses so of course the article focused almost exclusively upon the possible impact upon religion of the upcoming experiment.

Fortunately for those of us with a triple digit IQ, the form of the article was an interview with the theoretical physics Nobel laureate Steven Weinberg of the University of Texas and I got a kick out of some of his observations.

“The more we learn about the universe the less sign we see of an intelligent designer.”

Note that Weinberg is not only saying that we see less need of an intelligent designer but less evidence of one as well.

“I don't think that discoveries in elementary particle physics in themselves are likely to have anything like the impact of Darwin's theory.”

Probably not because the trailer park fundie crowd has no hope of understanding those discoveries nor their implications, therefore they’re no threat to the religious leadership which makes its living off of contributions from the faithful.

Actually, the fundie crowd doesn’t understand Darwin’s Theory of Evolution either but religious leaders have been kind enough to put together a simple minded straw man they are capable of understanding.

Of course the threat that evolution poses to fundie Christianity is so obvious that even the trailer park morons can figure that out, especially if their pastors pound away at it Sunday after Sunday. Hey, you have to keep those collection plates full.

“People who expect to find evidence of divine action in nature, in the origin of the universe or in the laws that govern matter, are probably going to be disappointed.”

But that’s not going to keep them from making stuff up which claims that they have.

“We don't see any purpose dictated to human beings in nature.”

Like I’ve said before, there’s a very good chance that we’re simply a cosmic accident, a temporary biological smudge upon the grand fabric of the universe.

“It takes a certain act of courage to look at nature, not see any plan for human beings in there and yet go on and live good lives, love each other, create beautiful things, explore the universe. All these take more courage without having some divine plan that we discover, but one that we rather create for ourselves.”

It certainly does. So much so that even many of us that recognize the probable reality of the situation sort of push it to the back of our minds. I’m willing to admit that I do this quite a bit. I state things in terms of probabilities and likelihoods which always leaves the door open a crack for a more pleasant reality. I also cling to my agnosticism rather than diving full bore into atheism.

The key point however is that if you have that courage, you don’t need the threat of punishment from some all powerful Sky Daddy to live a moral, creative life.

Still, I cling to agnosticism because hope springs eternal so they say and having a benevolent Sky Daddy watching over everything sure would be nice. Weinberg doesn’t seem concerned about that however.

“I don't believe in God, but I don't make a religion out of not believing in God. I don't organize my life around that.”

Life’s certainly too short to make a crusade out of the non-existence of God. So why can’t religious types see that it’s also too short to make a crusade out of the existence of God?