I’ve gotten a few rather puzzling comments on this post, querying as to whether I was writing about the formation of the moon. I decided I’d better read my post again and see what I had done.
I realized very quickly that in my excitement and rush to explain how the “God” particle was ‘created’ I forgot to mention that the example of planets/comets/asteroids was my “bigging up” the particles that had been zipping about at light speed and that it was a collision of particles which made the boson which then allowed the universe to grow and expand.
So in essence when you read the bit about Genesis and God colliding planets/comets/asteroids think particles and it will make a bit more sense.
My bad as Buffy would say.
So please carry on reading the original post. Thank you.
Yesterday while the USA celebrated the 4th of July, physicists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research announced that they have almost certainly detected a boson. A boson is one of two elementary particles that quantum theory says make up the universe. I am not going to go into a long winded explanation here, if you want that check out google.
What I am going to do is wonder how this validation of “The Big Bang Theory” is going to affect the organised religions of the world. More specifically, how it is going to affect Christianity.
Not to be too blunt about it, but the validation of “The Big Bang” kind of negates the story that the bible tells, doesn’t it. I grew up in a Christian household and attended church, not regularly, but more often than not. So I am familiar with the bible and it’s “teachings.”
Now before I start my little tirade, I’ll just set the stage a bit. The “Idiot’s Guide to the Big Bang Theory” goes something like this. Billions of years ago, two planets/comets/asteroids collided at roughly the speed of light. The resulting explosion created this boson particle which combined with other particles or fermions, also known as matter, such as protons and electrons. This whole process is what created our planet and started the whole evolutionary process that resulted in mankind
Are you with me so far? I hope so, because this is as good as I can explain it.
Now, the last time I read the bible, which I will admit was quite a few years ago, the book of Genesis doesn’t start with, “And God made two planets/comets/asteroids collide and thus made earth on the first day.” I pretty sure that it does not start that way.
So what I wonder is, how is religion or Christianity going to respond to this new information? I think I can pretty much guess how.
The first step will be denial. It always is. For the truly zealous or devout that is always the first response.
The next step will be to refute the findings using the bible to prove or negate the findings of the physicists.
The next possible step will be to try to imply or prove that the “Big Bang” was caused by God.
And the last possible step will be to let the organised religion re-invent itself or to die.
To be honest the first step has been proven historically. Look in your history books for this one and just see if I am right. Talk to your grandparents or great-grandparents, and ask. I’m pretty sure that you’ll hear that everything that does not fit into the bible’s “teachings” is always denied. “If God had meant man to fly, He’d have given us wings!”
Look it up, folks did say that.
The second step is a logical progression. It is used when Christians want to refute anything that does not fit into their way of thinking. More often than not, most things can be explained away by blaming the translation.
The third step is going to involve a lot of “singing and dancing” by the “experts” to pull this one off. I’m sure that they will try very hard to do this.
The last step is just where I see it heading. How can you continue to follow a religion that is built on the faith that the words in the bible are true. You either have to re-invent or recognise that what you have been blindly following for centuries is untrue.
I said over a year ago in a facebook discussion that in the new millenium we as a people would learn something that would shake our beliefs and our understanding of how the world works completely apart. When asked what I thought that might be, I had to admit to feeling very vague about exactly what this knowledge would be.
I sort of thought maybe the existence of alien life, finding out where ufo’s really came from, I don’t know. I do know that the discovery of the boson particle was not on my list of earth shattering events.
Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not ready to start dancing on the grave of Christianity just yet. And surely if Christianity is doomed what about Islam or Buddhism, et al.
Physicists have proven the existence of the boson particle. Now it’s the Christians turn. They need to (like a magician) pull a rabbit out of their religious hat. The ball is in their court so to speak.
I will say, that although I am not ready to dance just yet, I am also not going to hold my breath waiting for their response. I think that I will instead think about how the discovery of this boson can change how we do things.
And yes, top of the list for me, is just how long will it take them to invent the first ‘Star Trek-like transporter.’
Related articles
- What This Higgs Boson Thing Really Means (theatlantic.com)
- What is the Higgs boson & what does its discovery mean? (itv.com)
- God Particle: Is Hunt For Higgs Boson Over? (news.sky.com)
- Higgs boson: The sexy stuff just began with the Big Bang (thepunch.com.au)
- Is It Higgs Boson? New Particle Evidence Found (foxnews.com)
- Can you explain the Higgs boson in a tweet? (blogs.telegraph.co.uk)
- Higgs boson particle may have been found (stuff.co.nz)
- Scientists jubilate over particle evidence (thehimalayantimes.com)
- Physicists celebrate evidence of particle (news.smh.com.au)
- Eureka! Physicists celebrate evidence of particle (newsday.com)
