What the “Higgs” is going on?

Science and religion have always been two conflicting bodies of knowledge, the former using the faculty of reason while the latter using faith, when it comes to searching for the common goal—the truth. As stated by some great thinkers, faith and reason must have complementary relationship with each other. However, there is a seemingly severe contradiction of both just as religion and science deal with truths which are in sharp contrast with each other’s point.

One of the many disputes debated over science and religion is the issue about the origin of the universe to which the main theme of this article is centered on. Religion always upholds and propagates the faith that God is the origin of all things in the whole universe and that everything that exists is created. Science, on the other hand, adheres to saying the opposite—that things come into existence of their own.

As a requirement in the course, our Cosmology professor required us to make a research paper on the subject, the topic of which should have a connection to a contemporary issue in the same field. I have chosen the topic about the basic building blocks of the universe—those which constitute all things in the universe or “the material stuff from which everything in the universe comes from” as it is also called. In our previous philosophy subjects, I have learned the cosmic elements of fire, earth, air, water and ether propounded by the first scientist-philosophers. In addition to these is the idea that atoms are the smallest building blocks of all elements. What I am trying to present with my study are theories regarding the basic building blocks of all things since the olden times up to the present.  

When I begin to search the topic online, I am flooded with articles about the latest theory of the ultimate building blocks of all things. You may be intrigued if you hear the term “the God Particle” or if not, this may appear so strange to you – it is what this building block called.

Recently, the scientific world is alarmed by the so-called “greatest discovery in the 21^st century so far” and “the biggest news in physics ever tweeted.” It is the discovery of the long-sought subatomic particle, the “Higgs boson”, named after a British physicist Peter Higgs, who, along with two other groups of physicist three or more decades ago, proposed a mechanism hypothesizing the existence of a boson which is believe to be a piece of the cosmic substance that endows elementary particles with mass. It was in the 4^th of July this year when physicists at the Large Hadron Collider, the biggest particle accelerator ever built buried in a French-Swiss border, announced that they had found a new subatomic particle consistent of the “higgs boson.”

Some may believe it to be such a great discovery but do not know exactly what it is. For physicists, the discovery is important since the “higgs” is crucial in the understanding of the origin of mass, size, and shape of all matters. Joe Incandela, a physicist at the University of California, Santa Barbara and spokesperson for one of the experimental teams reporting the discovery said the discovery “is telling us something that's a key to the structure of the universe."

The discovery of this elusive particle touches the issue on the universe’s origin. What is most striking in this discovery is the cosmological implication: “It's the Higgs that makes physical reality the way it is, with atoms, chemical reactions and life. The Higgs boson explains why particles have mass -- and in turn why we exist. Without the boson, the universe would have no physical matter, only energy.” Furthermore, it says, “No Higgs, no molecules. No planets. No people.” 

I have been fascinated about this topic in science but I am so touched about the cosmological implication. I am not against science being aware of what it has offered to the humankind and the broader horizon it may give but I am so concerned about the byproduct of this discovery-- the clash between science and religion since it posits a new story of creation. At this point, the debate between faith and science about the origin of the universe, which has started since the big bang theory, has reignited. The “big bang theory”, a theory so disappointing to know to have been proposed as the origin of the universe by a priest named George Lemaitre, rejected the Divine creation. How does this affect me? Not just as a seminarian but because I am a believer that I would like to attach myself to this heated discussion. God cannot fit to this. If the “higgs” is true, and that it’s indeed what scientists know it to be, faith might be weakened, faith might weaken along with the expansion of the knowledge of science.

I might have as well believed it to be. I’m not against science but I can never reject my faith. Just put it, it’s the “higgs” which is responsible for the universe’ origin. Yet, in defense of my faith, I possibly will offer a straightforward counterargument against that scientific claim. The best defense I can offer against the “Higgs” is the principle of causality I learned in our metaphysics subject. Everything that exists is caused except for the One who is the “ultimate cause” who cannot be caused. Nothing comes into existence of its own. The “higgs” might be the origin of the cosmos but I believe it’s just an immediate cause, something which is possibly caused by the ultimate cause, the One who created out from nothing—God.

In the final analysis, we may be caused by the “higgs” but the question is “Who created it?”