Newsweek Article "Will Physicists Find God?"

[psr6782]

I was cruising around on the news sites and found a very interesting article.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/128877/page/1

In it, they explain an experiment that is going to begin this summer that may or may not disprove, or at least "take away from", many religious beliefs. Personally I'm skeptical of the whole thing because the person being interviewed states that they are an atheist and throughout the entire article they seem to have a somewhat skewed vision of religion.

Anyways, there's some stuff in there I don't really understand relating to the more technical parts, but I wanted to see what you guys thought.

[Silvertusk]

Well there are two points I would like to make about the article. The first is this :

1) If they find the God Particle and the theory of everything - then how does that disprove God. This God particle still needs an explanation and it still is not the eternal transcedant cause of the universe. Besides - What does it matter that God used one button to create the universe rather than a number of buttons. Shows even more the incredible element of design behind it.

2) What is he talking about when he says that we are discovering the universe requires less need of a designer?
"That's what was thought at the beginning, but we see less and less possibility of that. The more we learn about the universe the less sign we see of an intelligent designer."

I am sorry - but what utter rubbish - the complete opposite is true - we are seeing more and more that the universe has been fine tuned than ever before. I wonder where this chap is getting his facts from.

Silvertusk.

[Canuckster1127]

I was cruising around on the news sites and found a very interesting article.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/128877/page/1

In it, they explain an experiment that is going to begin this summer that may or may not disprove, or at least "take away from", many religious beliefs. Personally I'm skeptical of the whole thing because the person being interviewed states that they are an atheist and throughout the entire article they seem to have a somewhat skewed vision of religion.

Anyways, there's some stuff in there I don't really understand relating to the more technical parts, but I wanted to see what you guys thought.

Sounds like this physicist thinks that answering questions of physical existence is the sum and whole of the human need for the presence and power of God.

It says a lot about what this atheist thinks and has already made his mind up about, even prior to the conclusion of his experiment.

It says very little about the existence of God. God is defined by far more than God of the Gaps type thinking or materialism as the basis of all existence.

[Silvertusk]

But wouldn't you agree though that even if they did find this God particle - it still doesn't answer the question of what started it all, neither do i think it explains the reason for the fine tuning of the universe. If they are using the argument of necessity with the Theory of Everything then the fact that this may prove that the universe is a necessity is still an assumption with no evidence. As like i said - the TOE may well be the tool that God used to create the universe, using one dial instead of many and that to me is an even bigger evidence for design.

Silvertusk

[Canuckster1127]

I agree with you.

I don't have any problem with the idea that we're discovering more about the universe. The idea of a "theory of everything" has been around for many years. It may or may not pan out. Probably what will happen is the discoveries and new theories in that direction will answer old questions and raise new ones.

Stephen Hawking, more than 20 years ago, predicted these questions would be answered in the next 20 years. Here we are and still not answered yet.

None of these ultimately answer the question of first cause or whether a supernatural force started it all. Frankly, science can't answer that question.

[Silvertusk]

Well they are turning the accelerator on next month. If we are not all sucked into a black hole, are there any physicists on here that can explain what exactly is the point of all this and how it might affect Christian Belief (if any).

Much appreciated

SIlvertusk

[cslewislover]

Well they are turning the accelerator on next month. If we are not all sucked into a black hole, are there any physicists on here that can explain what exactly is the point of all this and how it might affect Christian Belief (if any).

Much appreciated

SIlvertusk

I found this article a while back on the "theory of everything:" http://www.galactic-guide.com/articles/6R102.html It's a bit old now, but I don't think things have changed much. Even if that collider found what the physicists are hoping for, how could that change anything about our view of God? I think it does show clearly the aetheists' position that the more they think they can explain, the more they think God doesn't exist. I find it really illogical.

[TheFlyingChristian]

The physicist has an idea behind it, he thinks this discovery will discredit God anyhow...

He is blinded by the results and the predictions that this experiment can bring and decides to ignore the whole other parts of the story.

[Daniel]

His worldview is determining what the answer will likely be ahead of time.

[godslanguage]

Hi, nice to see everyone is still battling it out

My reply to this article:

"ang and gives us a consistent picture of cosmology, there will be a little less for religion to explain. But religion has evolved along with science. It is something created by human beings, and as human beings learn more and more their religion changes. Today, especially in the more established religious sects in the West, they've learned to stop trying to explain nature religiously and leave that to science."

When you consider scientific discovery's "evolved" from people who held a belief in God, I would say thats quite the opposite. Human beings created science, since science has not been around as long as religion has anyways.

The real answer to the article lies here:

"Would it be accurate to say that you are an atheist?
Yes. I don't believe in God, but I don't make a religion out of not believing in God. I don't organize my life around that."

Sure....LOL!

More random ejaculations for the soul?

So now the predictions follow....

Lets first assume this will have a "great" impact on the existence of God and/or belief in God
Religious people are ignorant and stupid
We will prove you wrong!
Have a nice day!

But, the real flaw in all the logic is assuming that they explain away nature in natural terms they have confidently eliminated all the other variables. Once upon a time, Darwinian Evolution explained away all of Biology via RV&NS. Now we know that RV&NS is a pathetic excuse for how life came about, especially at the molecular and cellular level where highly specified and complex information processing systems exist and are highly indicative as a product of goal-directed teleological design. IF Design is actually so indicative (which it is) then I would say Religion predicted this long before science ever had anything to say about it. Science simply defaults materialistic explanations as primary, secondary comes unknown explanations...and thirdly comes, well, no explanations. So if no known explanations are found the primary explanation takes precedence until an unknown explanation becomes a known explanation. One for sure thing to note here is that Science must assume the non-existence of God (just like in the article)...and isn't that why they're now going through all the trouble to find out if God really exists or not, isn't that darling?

[Mingram]

Where they stumbled upon God. I think the latest was in the early 90's. They were trying to find the begining of time and found that time runs on an infinite scale. They then discovered that sense time has no beginning that the Big Bang had to have been triggered by something. That something HAS to be God.

[David Blacklock]

Hi Silvertusk,

Not a physicist, but will attempt an answer to your comment, "Well they are turning the accelerator on next month. If we are not all sucked into a black hole, are there any physicists on here that can explain what exactly is the point of all this and how it might affect Christian Belief (if any)."

They are doing what scientists have always done - trying to figure out answers to questions. Scientists are a curious sort and seem to do best when they follow their curiosity - whether or not financial application of the fruits of their curiosity is immediately apparent. For example, the science of particle physics was worked out during the middle 50 years of the twentieth century without any apparent technological benefit to society. As it turned out, about 35% of our economy today is dependent upon the quantum physics principles that they discovered. BTW, the naming of the Higgs particle as a "God" particle is because the Higgs particle supposedly gives the other particles their mass. Not sure what that has to do with God.

DB