The God Particle- Updated!

I've been thinking about the God Particle alot lately. Not that I really even begin to understand it. But it's been on my mind. Let me explain.


Some 15 or 20 years ago, I picked up a book called "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" by Richard Rhodes and couldn't put it down. It's a history of particle physics, laying the ground work for the Manhattan Project, the code name for the secret government project to develop the atomic bomb in time to stop World War II. This book introduced me to quantum mechanics and the men and women behind these theories. I was fascinated and read book after book on this subject, particularly about the scientists themselves. I couldn't get enough of Bohr, Fermi, Dirac, Einstein, Lawrence, Heisenburg, Oppenheimer and especially Richard Feinmen. I learned that the picture of the atom that I learned in grade school, high school, and even college was hopelessly incorrect- that electrons don't orbit around the nucleus like planets around the sun.

In fact, we really don't know what an electron is. Or exactly where it's supposed to be at a given instant. Quantum physics works in probabilities- that it's quite probably that a given electron will appear in a given location, but that's all. Probabilities. We can't know for sure.

And it gets worse. Light can exhibit the properties of a wave, like a pebble dropped into a lake- we all know how light waves scatter, reflect, and interact. But it also exhibits properties of a particle, which your old tube TV set was based on- firing photons from the "gun" to the screen to make an image. Which is it? A wave or particle? It can't be both... The answer? It depends on how you look for it. It seems you can actually impact it's very core properties by your own observation.

Faced with these difficult issues, Einstein made his famous quote "God does not play dice." This is not the last time we hear the name of "God" invoked...

As time went on, physicists identified four Fundamental interactions by which particles react to each other; "fundamental" because they can't be explained by any other interaction. These are as follows:

Strong Nuclear Force- how do all those positively charged protons in the nucleus keep from flying out?? Remember, like charges repel each other.

Weak Nuclear Force- how and why do atoms decay? What causes this thing called radioactivity?

Electromagnetism- what explains the electric and magnetic forces between objects?

Gravity- while our most familiar force, it has characteristics and properties that still baffle the greatest scientific minds.

Scientists are working on a theory that will unite these four fundamental forces into one giant equation, called the GUT or Grand Unification Theory. So far, they have been able to unite the first three into an equation, but have been unable to bring in gravity.

The math to unite these is complex, but has been highly successful. Over the years, the math has predicted that certain subatomic particles should exist, but have not been discovered yet. Many times, what that mathematics has predicted has been found by experiment. A fellow by the name of Steven Weinberg (with colleagues) was responsible for the equation that linked the first three forces into something called the Standard Model. As particles were discovered to match the Standard Model, Weinberg was awarded the Nobel Prize. He integrated his math with a fellow named Higgs, which resulted in a description of all particles along with their predicted masses. There is still one major particle predicted that has not been found. In simple terms, experimental discovery of this particle may explain why particles have mass. Which relates to their behavior with respect to gravity...which ties everything together!

Which brings us to the God particle. Otherwise known as the Higgs Boson. This is the missing particle!

As you've probably read, a giant super collider came on line in Geneva, Switzerland a short time ago that made the news. This thing is built in a tunnel 300 feet below the surface, and is 17 miles long. It may be the most complex feat of engineering and technology ever assembled by mankind, at the cost of several billion dollars. You can check out what this looks like here:

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2008/03/god-particle/achenbach-text

Now somewhere along the line, a physicist by the name of Leon Lederman called the Higgs Boson "the God Particle", and even wrote a book by that title. Higgs himself tells the story that Lederman wanted to call it "the goddamn particle", because it's virtually impossible to find. However, "the God Particle" is more marketable and it stuck.

As I thought about the God Particle, I wondered what my smarter, more intellectual friends on the Web were saying. So I did a search. I expected to find some pretty technical discussions, along with some intelligent conclusions that we as Christians, might draw from the God Particles discovery (if its found).

This proved as elusive as the God Particle itself.

I found very little discussion, and what I did find was shocking and discouraging. There were two major viewpoints that I uncovered.

First, there were the Christian Wacko Contingent (CWC) that predicted the end of the world, based on the idea that the particle collider would produce a black hole that would in turn, swallow them up, along with their Aunt Matilda, her pet dog, and everything else. There were even several YouTube videos with these guys proclaiming "The END is NEAR". This didn't bother me so much, as it didn't actually come to pass, and I've seen my share of CWC's websites over the years.

What did, was the second viewpoint I encountered. This group, the Science Is Stupid League (SISL), posts blogs that start off "Dumb scientists. If they wanna find God, they should read the Bible. Yeesh. How stupid can they be, spending all that money, digging a hole, and thinking they'll find God at the bottom. " Then all their friends post comments in reply that say "Right on! They sure are stupid, snicker, snicker. God is gonna kill them, just like at the Tower of Babel."

Is this how dumbed down Christianity has become? As I read through these, I really was discouraged that Christians would be so negative about something they don't begin to have a clue about. They hear the name "God Particle" and immediately react, form an opinion, and get all their friends to agree to propagate the ignorance.

Finally, in the middle of one of these blogs with about 50 comments, a guy got on and said "Hey wait a minute...you guys really don't know what you're talking about." He went on to explain a bit about particle physics and the Higgs Boson and what it means.

He was immediately attacked.

But he persevered, with grace providing clear responses to their attacks.

Then he said something that struck a chord with me.

"I believe" he said, "that 'He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.'" Col 1:16

I don't really understand the weak force, or the strong force, or electromagnetism, or even gravity. And I can't fault scientists for developing theories...

But I do understand this: In Him all things hold together, whether at the subatomic level or the personal level, Christ is the author, creator, and sustainer of the universe. That's the Grand Unifying Theory of the Bible.

And one day, we'll all see the proof of this theory- Every knee shall bow and tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Thoughts?

Eric

Update 10/01/08:

Remember the guy I mentioned above that won the Nobel Prize for his work on unifying the four fundamental forces, Steven Weinberg?

He did an interview last May with Newsweek magazine in which he was asked repeatedly about God, especially in relationship to what the Geneva Collider will uncover. His answers are quite revealing as to how a scientific atheist thinks. Two in particular stand out:

But won't some people expect to find the presence of a grand designer in that final theory? "That's what was thought at the beginning, but we see less and less possibility of that. The more we learn about the universe the less sign we see of an intelligent designer."

Are they also going to be disappointed about our position in nature, our purpose? "We don't see any purpose dictated to human beings in nature."

So Weinberg, an extremely intelligent Nobel Prize winning physicist, working on some of the most complex theories in the world, can't see any evidence of intelligent design in the universe, or any purpose in human life.

How sad.

You can read the whole article here: http://www.newsweek.com/id/128877/page/1