On God and his Particles

The world of science made an announcement this week about the Higgs Boson that to some people is the most fundamental discovery in nature, while to others it is absolutely meaningless.

Our faith, to some people is the most fundamental discovery in nature, while to others it is absolutely meaningless.

And we all have trouble sometimes expressing what we believe in, and making ourselves understood to those who do not travel in our circles.

But back to the  elusive Higgs Boson.  Physicists, especially Peter Higgs, don't generally call it the God Particle.   CERN announced this week that evidence for the existence of the Higgs Boson has been discovered at the Large Hadron Colider.  Cool.  Absolutely outstanding.  I sincerely congratulate them on their achievements.  But what use is this to the average person in the street?  Well I am sure that at the moment, the answer is not a lot. 

Back in 1927, you would have said "not a lot" if someone asked you what you knew about Quantum Mechanics, however this knowledge is absolutely fundamental to the creation of transistors, and in every computer chip you are using to read this post.  Sometimes things  are discovered that may  not have an application for decades to come. 

We live in an age of discovery, and while sometimes it is hard to keep up with progress, and even harder to understand it, we need to at least try to know a little of all that is going on if we are to be the moral guardians of society.  When someone says "Look what we can do!" we should be saying, "that's great, but lets just make sure this isn't going to cause harm."  We should not stop progress, (we tried that with heliocentrism, and made ourselves look foolish)  but we should think about its implications.

It is great that God gave us the inquisitive minds, to look and to try to understand his creation, but  the more we look, the more there is yet to be revealed.  And that's amazing.

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
 And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.