Sunday, April 1, 2012

The Real God Particle

There better be a purpose to life, otherwise what are we all setting the alarm clock for tonight. That's my first thought whenever i read a scientific article, like the one in the Los Angeles Times today by some renowned professor extolling the latest discovery that points the light further into the vast recesses of time and space and then pronounces, ""See. there is no God there."
The latest novelty, gained by smashing atoms together in a machine the size of a small city built underground in the Swiss Alps, is something called the Higgs Boson, tellingly nicknamed the "God" particle. First theorized by Einstein, the "God" particle supposedly explains the existence of gravity in the Universe. For a longer explanation of the science, go here.
The scientists at the Hadron Collider have recently glimpsed some tantalizing signs of the Higgs Boson, enough to get Lawrence M. Krauss of Arizona State excited and waving the placards once again that we don't need no God because we've got the Higgs Boson to prove that we can go it alone.
Seems kind of short-sighted. The obvious retort is always going to be, well, what put the Higgs Boson there, Larry? Was there a purpose to that?
It's funny because I love science. i believe that so does God. He wants us to use our minds, otherwise why did he give us the silicon to make computer chips. My bias is that the Hadron Collider will never prove that God does not exist. I could be wrong, but for me purpose in the Universe is the real "God" particle. It's the message of all ancient civilizations and great art, it is overwhelmingly a part of the cycle of life. I cannot believe it is a hoax. Sometimes I have doubts about certain tenets of my belief, and about my own fitness to be here, but never that there is a purpose in the process of being revealed. I'm just as excited as Mr. Krauss that the Higgs Boson is being discovered. That the Universe is wondrous beyond belief goes without saying. That man is capable of such extraordinary intellectual and engineering feats as could lead to the discovery of such structural truths is inspiring and awesome. But don't tell me that it proves the universe is random and purposeless. That's sad.

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