Nobel Prize for ‘God Particle’ Discovery Prompts Deeper Questions

Tuesday, November 5, 2013 - 5:56am
Photo by Rene Passet

Nobel Prize for ‘God Particle’ Discovery Prompts Deeper Questions

by Eric Nelson,  Guest Contributor


But first, a little background.















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Thank you for the contribution Eric!











Do we We share The Great Consiousness with "God"?

Maybe The Great Consciousness IS God? :)

Mary Baker Eddy author of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures who taught "mental healing" and believed in the existence of "malicious animal magnetism" is no more a "medical pioneer" than Ron L. Hubbard author of Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health is a pioneer of mental health.

What both of these colorful characters - in the venerable line of new world charlatans that includes Joseph Smith founder of the Mormon Church - have in common with Deepak Chopra is the misappropriation of the word Science to capitalize on the legitimacy and truthfulness that science confers. Neither of their claims have anything to do with science and of course collapse instantly under rational and scientific scrutiny, which is governed by standards of evidence.

The misguided massive following that this pseudoscience enjoys is in part attributable to the deplorable state of science education. The author of this article appears to be a product of this education also: He asks: Does the Higgs boson exist only in our mind?

Over a period of more than 40 years since the particle was first proposed thousands of the world's top scientists and engineers from over 100 countries, as well as hundreds of universities and laboratories spent millions of man-hours and billions of Euros for the sole purpose of answering precisely that question. They answered it on March 14, 2013 with the help of a machine considered one of the great engineering milestones of mankind specially built for that purpose. The answer, sadly, appears to have been lost on Mr. Nelson.

When reading this article, I am reminded of the Hindu mythology of the god Vishnu, resting on the cosmic lotus blossom. If I remember correctly, the diety opens his eyes and the universe comes into being. He closes his eyes, and it disappears. To look is to create.
Some parallels here too with experiments in physics in which things not looked at do not exist.

Yes, and not just in physics, but in the sciences generally - wherein things not perceived remain unseen. Although it can also be said that there are things which one doesn't want to understand, and so they remain not understood. The supposed objectivity of scientists in their quest to determine what is "real" is extremely relative. Since science posits its own pre-determined and narrowed range of perceptions (as in its "reductionist" prerogative), it cannot see beyond that materialistic playing field - and not because it is the only thing that could be truly said to exist, but merely because it is only what it is willing to accept subjectively and engage with. It is truly a choice, truly subjective… not objective at all. And so what science can teach us is limited...

A physicist responds
I am an experimental physicist and process theologian and I would like to clarify a few things about the Higgs boson, or "God" particle.

1.  NO ELEMENTARY PARTICLE HAS EVER BEEN "SEEN".  This is because not all of them interact with the electromagnetic field and, those that do, are much, much smaller then the wavelength of visible light.  We have only seen photons that suggest the existence of elementary particles.

2.  What has been observed is changes in systems (atomic or sub-atomic) measured through interactions with devices that we believe that we understand.  WHAT HAS BEEN OBSERVED IS EVIDENCE THAT SOME OF WHAT WE THINK ARE ELEMENTARY PARTICLES HAVE MASS AND OTHERS DO NOT.  Also, the existence of particles, their collisions and creation, seem to suggest that the property called mass is grainy.  It is not continuously distributed, but rather comes in distinct jumps and changes in magnitude.

3.  THESE OBSERVATIONS ARE A PUZZLE OR PROBLEM BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT WHAT WE HAD EXPECTED FROM OUR THEORIES.  Here is a related example:  by looking at particle collisions, physicists have observed the incoming and outgoing particles of these collisions that suggest that particles we call baryons and mesons (like protons and neutrons), are composed of fractionally charged particles that have been called, amusingly, “quarks”.  According to the theory embraced currently by most physicists, a single quark CANNOT be observed; all that can be observed is reactions that make the most sense if we posit the existence of quarks.  Quarks have never been seen and, possibly, can never be seen; but some experimental evidence is most easily explained by positing their existence. 

4.  THE SOLUTION TO THIS PUZZLE IS EXPLAINED BY THE INVENTION OF A THEORY THAT POSITS UNSEEN PARTICLES OR INTERACTIONS. Therefore the solution of the question “[w]here did the thought of the Higgs boson come from?” is the statement taken from the Wikipedia article on them that states “the Higgs Boson is an elementary particle initially theorized in 1964 and TENTATIVELY confirmed to exist on 14 March 2013.”

So, having explained all this, I believe that it is fair to state that the Higgs boson WOULD NOT have existed without our first thinking of it.  The effect of the Higgs particles did, of course, exist for many millennia before humans walked upright; but the concept of the Higgs boson did not exist until the mid 60s.  This is all that the Higgs boson is:  it is a concept that helps us explain observations that we have made.  It helps us build a conceptual framework that we can use to explain our observations of the universe around us. 

Like all elementary particles, the Higgs boson exists in our minds as a convenient tool that we posit to help us make sense of what we observe.  We can’t manipulate these particles by our thoughts, though we might find the need to append our thoughts slightly if doing so will help us make sense of further observations.

so, if we can find these particles, dark matter, neutrons, electrons, protons, etc. then why hasnt anyone found the energy that powers humans and other mammals, amphibians, etc. surely there is an energy other than electricity over synapse that powers us

I know if I do not put the peanut butter on the cracker it will taste like a cracker without the peanut butter.