Question:

Your thoughts on the new information concerning the Higgs-Boson, the “God particle”?

Response:

My thoughts on the new information about the Higgs Boson is that it changes absolutely nothing from a Christian Apologetic point of view. First of all, the theory about the existence of this particle–the one responsible for giving mass to particles–has been around for more than thirty years. It is part of the “standard model” for fundamental particles. Because of the strong evidence that the Big Bang happened, science has already confirmed what the Bible said all along, which is that the universe was created out of nothing. “By faith we understand that what is seen has been made from that which is unseen.” (Hebrews 11:3). For the Christian, the only question remaining is not whether God created the universe, but how he did it. If physicists can give us a fuller insight into how God designed the universe, this is a good thing. We already know that the universe is fantastically “fine tuned,” with constants such as the force of gravity or the amount of positive and negative charge having values unimaginably precisely set with values, without which, we would not be here. The evidence for design of the universe is a “slam dunk.” The discovery of the Higgs Boson by experiment which confirms what was believed by theoreticians really changes nothing about this.

Perhaps the main reason that the discovery of the Higgs Boson has raised so many questions for believers is that it was given the nick name the “God particle.” I suppose that for some, the implication is that with the discovery of this particle, we do not need God any more. The Higgs Boson does the work that we used to think God did.  Who gave it this nick name? I believe that it was given this name by atheists and naturalists who used this as a rhetorical stab at believers. It is their rhetorical attempt to say to believers something like this: Now that we have discovered this particle, we REALLY do not need to invoke God to explain the universe. One could just as well have called the photon or the electron the God particle. This is just a label attached by people who have an agenda. Any agenda-driven name should probably be ignored. The fact is that the wonderfully designed properties of the electron, photon, up and down quarks, the size of the gravity force and any of dozens of properties and parameters which determine how the universe works are powerful evidence, not only that the universe was created, but that it was created by a very powerful and intelligent designer. The discovery of the Higgs Boson does not change this. I say let us give credit to God for his wonderful design and creation of the Higgs Boson. All the particles in the universe are God particles.

John Oakes