Right now, physicists are excitedly working on a project designed to figure out how matter has mass. The proposed theory under which physicists have been working is that there is an invisible field in the universe made of what they call "Higgs boson" particles. The particles, nicknamed the "God-particle", are named after the theorist Peter Higgs who after postulating the idea in 1964 is still involved in the research. Bosons, supposedly, are particles made of mass and basically nothing else. At the time of the supposed "Big Bang", the idea is that all particles passed through the invisible field and these bosons attached themselves to the particles giving mass to them - thus allowing them to form into stars, planets, and people.
Now, what is interesting is that scientists are very near their climactic test of this theory. Because the theory states that the "Higg's Boson" only exists in extremely high energies, which haven't existed since the time of the supposed "Big Bang", a test "chamber" of sorts has been manufactured to create the kind of energy necessary to produce the never before seen bosons. A particle physics laboratoy near Geneva has built a 5 billion dollar "Large Hallodan Collider" where they will smash atoms and produce the energy necessary to test their hypothesis this year. The Collider is huge (a 17 mile underground tunnel) and the process is amazing. Listen to what is involved in this experiment in the following quote:
"Smashing atoms
— The European particle physics laboratory’s accelerator will smash beams of protons against one another at 0.999997828 times the speed of light. It is housed in a tunnel 17 miles long, about the same length as the London Underground’s Circle Line
— When the tunnel was cut, the ends met with only 1cm of error
— Each proton will go around the tunnel 11,245 times a second
— The proton beam will carry the equivalent energy of an aircraft carrier sailing at 11 knots
— The superconducting cables used to power the LHC would stretch around the Equator 6.8 times. All the filaments would stretch to the Sun and back five times, plus a few trips to the Moon
— The cooling apparatus could keep 140,000 fridges full of sausages at a temperature a little above absolute zero
— The beam pipes contain a vacuum similar to that found in space.
— Engineers look for leaks so small that they would cause a car tyre to go flat in 10,000 years."
I don't know about you, but when I consider these things from the mercy of God's sufficient explanation to us in the Scriptures, which declares that created all these things (Genesis 1:1) and did so for His glory and our good, I have a couple of worshipful thoughts:
1. Psalm 8 "What is man that you are mindful of him..." The world is a treasure chest of enormous realities that we are still trying to piece together and to think that God made these things for our joy in Him, this should cause us to rejoice in the wisdom and power of our God, and His enormous love for His creatures.
2. Ephesians 2:7 - We ought to anticipate what the new heaven and new earth will be like when for an eternity, Jesus will show us the eternal riches of His grace.
The complexity and order of creation (yes, creation) declares to us that this is no random, accidental mess. There is intelligence, order, and design. Romans 1:18-20 tells us that these things reveal to us God and the enormity of His power and wisdom. This should cause us not merely to pursue the postulated "Higgs Particle" but it should cause us to pursue the Mind who made it all, and who made it so good. Romans 1:18 and following teach us that it takes a deliberate and willful act of supression of the truth to see what God has done in creation and then deny that He exists. My question is - why would we? Worship seems all the more honest and exciting. Relationship with Him seems full of eternal promise. Again, it is a marvel to me that God has made things so sophisticated that we can enjoy the exploration of all these things with all our mental capacities for ages and yet, God was careful to leave a written note on human history in the person of Jesus Christ which reads "I love you. Come back home. Your Creator and your Father."
Many scientists who have yet to see if the Higg's Boson really exists have been functioning as if it does. They often criticize people of faith who, though they have never seen God, still live as if God exists. Let me suggest to you, whether the Higg's Boson exists in a proveable fashion or not, the evidence for God is overwhelming. God also has come to us and spoken in the person of His Son. Physicists should be excited to look at the evidence and anticipate even more discoveries and be able to go forward knowing that this confirms again and again - the reasonableness of the reality of a good and wise God.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article3701645.ece
