Higgs Boson, “What’s in the data?”

This week particle physicists announced the experimental discovery of the Higgs Boson, a scientific breakthrough certain to win the Nobel Prize. Here is an incredibly entertaining video posted nine weeks ago that explains the physics.  (Turn your iPad to portrait orientation and watch in full screen mode to fully appreciate the video.)

So let’s contemplate the question at the end of this video, and think about “What’s in the data?” and why there is such a flap about this so-called “God Particle.”

Our friends at Reasons To Believe have posted 17 articles to date on the Higgs Boson.  Dr. Hugh Ross posted a four-part series on this topic in 2011, in which he explains the theological prize that’s in the data.

The Theological Prize

“From a theological perspective, the bigger trophy will be determining the degree to which the characteristics (especially the mass, average momentum, abundance, and location) of sterile neutrinos must be fine-tuned to explain why life, especially human life, is possible in the universe. … Sterile neutrinos would bolster the biblically predicted hot big bang creation model by resolving eight anomalies in the standard cosmology and particle physics creation model simultaneously. Even more than that, they would also significantly augment the evidence for the supernatural, super-intelligent design of the universe to make possible the existence of physical life, especially human beings and their global, high-technology civilization.

Axions, as well, contribute to the evidence for the design of the universe for humanity’s specific benefit. Like sterile neutrinos, the characteristic features, abundance, and geographical placement of axions must be fine-tuned. Thanks to the recent observational and theoretical discoveries concerning sterile neutrinos and axions, scientists now possess much more complete and much better integrated models of cosmic and particle creation. Such completeness and integration adds yet more proof for the biblical creation model and the attributes of the biblical Creator.”  — Dr. Hugh Ross, 2011

That’s just what I was thinking!  It’s all in how we interpret the data.  Or maybe, more to the point, it’s all in how we appreciate what God created.