Higgs boson: the God particle?

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

There was some exciting news last week. Scientists working at the leading edge of theoretical physics announced that they have discovered a subatomic particle that may be the elusive Higgs boson, often called the “god particle” in the popular press.

Scientists don’t like that name, as it implies that the discovery will answer some deep theological questions. It won’t, but it will help explain some important gaps in our scientific understanding. I find this fascinating, even though it can be hard to understand. The more we learn about the nature of the cosmos the stranger it seems to be. The physicist Freeman Dyson once said that the cosmos is not just stranger than we understand – it is stranger than we can understand.

However, the breakthroughs announced last week do seem to be opening up new levels of understanding. Scientists are naturally exuberant and the media is always hungry for sensational headlines. But if you read past the hype, it is clear that we have discovered something significant, even if we are not quite sure what it means. For example, Professor John Womersley, chief executive of the Science and Technology Facilities Council, told reporters at a briefing in London:

They have discovered a particle consistent with the Higgs boson. Scientists say it is a 5 sigma result, which means they are 99.999% sure they have found a new particle, yet they don’t know for sure what this all means.

For most of us, 99.999% is good enough, but until there is 100% certainty a careful scientist will remain cautious. Sadly, that does not stop others from feeding the atheistic agenda by suggesting that these advances in understanding are steadily chipping away at the need to believe in a Creator God. For example, Lawrence Krauss, a theoretical physicist at Arizona State University wrote,

Far from suggesting any higher power, the discovery at CERN takes particle physics one step further toward answering the question: “Why is there something rather than nothing?” [It does this] by demonstrating the plausibility of the idea that everything we see could arise naturally from an initial state of no particles, and maybe no space, and maybe even no fixed laws — without supernatural shenanigans (cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com).

According to Krauss, the Higgs research “explains why we are here.” Sorry, but it does nothing of the kind. It is quite possible that this discovery will even deepen the mystery of the nature of the universe. This discovery, even if confirmed with 100% certainty, will certainly not be the end of physics research. For example, it probably won’t explain something as fundamental as gravity.

Physicist Lisa Randall is one of the clearer and more objective writers in this field today. She wrote,

We are poised on the edge of discovery. The biggest and most exciting experiments in particle physics and cosmology are under way and many of the world’s most talented physicists and astronomers are focused on their implications. What scientists find within the next decade could provide clues that will ultimately change our view of the fundamental makeup of matter or even of space itself—and just might provide a more comprehensive picture of the nature of reality (Knocking on Heaven’s Door: How Physics and Scientific Thinking Illuminate the Universe and the Modern World).

As has so often happened in the history of science, what may at first seem to be a conclusive experiment opens up new fields of experiment and discovery. Paul reminds us how the physical creation can show us something of God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature (Romans 1:20). Something – but not everything. That was a mistake Job made. He thought he had God all figured out, until God brought him down to earth and exposed his ignorance. “Have you ever gotten to the true bottom of things?” he challenged him. “Do you have any idea how large this earth is? Do you know where Light comes from and where Darkness lives? Have you ever traveled to where snow is made, seen the vault where hail is stockpiled?” (Job 38:18-23 Message Bible).

Our understanding has advanced since then, and we might be tempted to sneer at Job’s ignorance. We do know now how large the earth is, and why we experience light and darkness. And the science of meteorology has long banished any mysteries about why it snows and hails. But the more we learn the more we find there is to learn. What the physicists are doing is fantastic, and good luck to them (providing they don’t make a “Higgs boson bomb”). But it is arrogant and foolish to suggest we have reached the end of the road of discovery and now have no need to believe in a Creator God. While this current experiment may help provide the answer as to why things in the universe have mass (weight, size and shape), it won’t answer the questions why things like the Higgs field and the Higgs boson particle exist in the first place and where they came from.

Thankfully, we don’t need a supercollider to understand the most important things we need to know about God – his unconditional love for us, and his determination to give us salvation and life with him for eternity. He showed us that in the most striking way – not with an obscure particle that needs trillion-dollar experiments to unwrap. He did it himself, coming to us in the simplest and most easily comprehensible way – as one of us, in person, face-to-face.

When, in Jesus, God the Son became human, his teachings “super collided” with the way we have chosen to live and those images or ideas of God that we have constructed for ourselves. Although at first rejected through his birth, life, death and resurrection, Jesus triumphed over all opposition, including death and evil itself, opening the way for us to understand who God is, who we are and why we are here.

With love in Christ’s service,

Joseph Tkach