August 5, 2012:

The God Particle

        Recently, physicists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research in Geneva Switzerland announced that they believe they have discovered the long-sought “God particle.”  Formally known as the Higgs boson, it may help us to understand why there are things – including us – in the universe.  This discovery explains why there is mass.  It explains why we have sticks and stones, cathedrals and chocolate, planets and people.  Simply put, the Higgs boson may be the “glue” which holds everything together.

        I suspect why this mysterious particle – long suspected but never before detected – is called the “God particle” is a testimony to our belief that God not only creates but also sustains the universe and everything in it.  No one is suggesting that Higgs boson is “God.”  No “part” of God is part of anything.  God is not caught by God’s creation.

        I believe the translation of Paul’s Letter to the Romans 1:19-20 in “the Message” has it just right:  “But the basic reality of God is plain enough.  Open your eyes and there it is!  By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can’t see, eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of God’s divine being.”

        There is no conflict between religion and science.  Truth is truth and reality is reality.  No responsible scientist would dare to suggest that Higgs boson can prove or disprove God.  It is simply a reminder of the infinite complexity of the universe that points to the mystery that is God . . . to those who have “eyes” of faith.

        What has not and can not be discovered by science is why this infinite God should care about us.  Only faith can answer that.  Read Psalm 8 has a wonderful expression of that faith:

                      “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,

                       the moon and stars that you have established;

                      what are human beings that you are mindful of them,

                      mortals that you care for them?

                      Yet you have made them a little lower than God,

                      And crowned them with glory.”

        To me, that is even more mysterious and wonderful than Higgs boson.

        Love,

        Dave