The article Racing to the
“God Particle” is contains the following:
“Dubbed the
“God particle” by Nobel Prize-winning physicist Leon Lederman, the Higgs boson
is a controversial particle believed to bestow mass on all other
particles.“
and
“The Higgs boson is interesting
because it is the only reasonable explanation we have for the origin of
mass,” say Dave Rainwater a researcher at FermiLab.
It is
interesting that some think they need a particle that bestows mass on other
particles, it reminds me of the “First Cause” argument in a way. Speaking from
severely limited scientific knowledge than what would bestow mass on the Higgs
boson, or do they think it is like God, where in God essence and existence are
absolutely one in the same. I am not going to make the fundamentalists mistake
where theology and science are or could be at odds; truth is truth and can never
conflict. We just need to be prudent in not confusing theories with
truth.
No I wonder, that if a physicist doesn’t believe in the “God
Particle” does that make him a “Particle Atheist.
And in the spirit of
bad Scott Hahn puns, everyone know that Mass is bestowed by Jesus through the
priest.
1 comment
The writer has the concept wrong however this was intentional in the name. Let me explain: In particle physics, all information is transfered by particles, there is no magic. a particle must come out to touch you for you to be aware of it. For instance, the sun gives off electromagnatisim. For you to see or feel the sun, a photon must be exchanged between you and the sun. Of the four forces, all the transfer particles have been found except the one for the gravitational force. One of the reasons it is called the God particle is that when found, it may unify Quantum physics with relativity. Then physics would be unified and be able to describe all interactions with one set of equations instead of two.
The other reason for the name is that in texas the US was constructing the worlds largest atom smasher. The scientist who was going to be the director wrote a book called the god particle because the funding was getting cut for the project and he wanted to sway president Bush Sr. for funding based on his religious beleifs. This atom smasher was sopossedly going to detect this particle.
A religious connotation for the god particle with no relation to what we were talking about here can be found at my site http://www.freewebs.com/thegodparticle