No Particle Gets to Be God, Ever!

“…because they worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator…” (Romans 1:25) 

Christians ought to celebrate scientific discoveries that arise from the exploration of the natural world.  As John Heilprin of the Associated Press (The Everett Herald, (03-15-2013) puts it, the recent actual discovery of the “Higg’s boson,” following 20 years of searching for this elusive entity (out of an educated hunch that it must be “out there somewhere”) has provided an important piece to the puzzle as to how the building blocks of matter stick together.  The fact is a host of factors that were present at the very beginning of creation reveal an intentionality on the part of an intelligent and all-powerful God. However, for a number of years now, this sought-after entity that was just discovered has been called the “God particle.”

It is important in this context to remember several matters.  The first is the affirmation that the scientific enterprise is a godly venture which the Bible blesses (Psalm 19, Romans 1:18-20).  Second, it is important for all people (including both the scientifically-minded and the religiously-minded) to understand both what science is, and what it is not.  Science investigates natural processes within the realm of nature.  Science does not deal with events that lie outside the natural order.  This leads directly to the third matter.  When we consider the matter of the Higgs boson it is important to be clear philosophically about what the Higgs boson is.  Is it an ultimate cause of everything else which brings all of nature into existence?  Or is it a secondary cause within nature which advances an explanation about the rest of the natural order?

Heilprin opens his article in a very unhelpful way by stating, “It [the boson] helps solve one of the most fundamental riddles of the universe: how the Big Bang created something out of nothing 13.7 billion years ago.”  Here the author is confusing ultimate causes with secondary ones by making a contradictory statement.  Since it is understood that the boson is an entity within nature that can be studied by scientific means, then it must be conceded that the boson cannot be the cause of nature itself.  As Einstein stated from his general theory of relativity, all of matter, energy, space, and even time itself came into existence out of nothing.  This includes the Higgs boson.  The boson did not self-create.  When we explore nature we are meeting the handiwork of the Transcendent God of the Holy Bible who by His intentional design brought all things into existence by His command (Hebrews 11:3).  The plethora of scientists who helped launch the scientific enterprise at the beginning of the renaissance (the fruits of whose efforts we receive today) were all motivated by the notion that they were thinking God’s thoughts after Him.  They did not mistakenly “worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator” (see Romans 1:25).  There is no scientific excuse today for parting from the wisdom of the earlier scientists who believed in “God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.”  So let us not confuse a newly-discovered “god particle” with the actual Creator of all things.