Why Is It Called The 'god' Particle?

Discussion in 'Science and Technology' started by Jimbee68, Aug 27, 2014.

  1. Jimbee68

    Jimbee68 Member

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    Why is the Higgs boson called the "God Particle"?

    What does it have to do with God? Does it prove his existence somehow? Could it disprove?

    :daisy:
     
  2. tomwil

    tomwil Members

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    Because it allegedly proves "creation" of the Universe, i.e. The Big Bang! It has nothing to do with God itself, but is meant to imply the beginning of all things.
     
  3. themnax

    themnax Senior Member

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    i was wondering the same thing myself, and yes, this pretty much explains it. i might wonder though if it really does, or simply makes all the other pieces fit nicely together.

    my gut might be wrong, but my gut tells me an absolute beginning of everything just sound/feels/what have you, just a weee bit too simple.

    as long as it works for what its used for, of course, my qualms signify nothing, as long as it does.
     
  4. lode

    lode Banned

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    Well not the big bang, but does explain several things about the Inflationary Epoch, which happened right after the Big Bang, at a time when all the 4 fundamental forces were equal.

    It's a particle which gives matter mass. It's existence does explain some mysteries in physics, so some author called it the god-particle. The media thought it was a snappy name, and there you go. It doesn't imply divinity more than say, your humble proton does.
     
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  5. guerillabedlam

    guerillabedlam _|=|-|=|_

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    To expand on Iode's response, Without matter having mass, nothing would form so there would be no planets and inevitably no humans. So the Higgs Boson is called "The God Particle" because it is theorized to allow matter to come together and particles to slow to form objects rather than particles 'bouncing' around forever at the speed of light without anything forming.

    From my understanding on the topic, (basically a few shows on the Science channel) The Higgs field is theorized to not have been present in the very earliest moments of the Big Bang, so it's name as "The God Particle" solely has to do with giving rise to the formation of various objects in the universe and not the Big Bang itself.
     
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  6. troubled

    troubled Member

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    i wonder if its also an appropriate name because that theory is supported by the Vatican.
    it kind of makes everyone happy...
     
  7. AceK

    AceK Scientia Potentia Est

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    it explains why some particles have mass. mass is a parameter, and the higgs field explains why particles take on this parameter.

    of course the higgs field is just another set of parameters in an equation. how deep does the rabbit hole go? the higgs boson doesn't really have anything to do with the existence or explanation of god and the phrase "god particle" was mostly a result of popular scientific media.
     
  8. KeithBC

    KeithBC Member

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    It is called the "god" particle because idiot reporters have no idea what they are talking about, but love hype, and wanted to convey to the general public, who know even less than they do, that this was a big discovery. That's all.
     
  9. AceK

    AceK Scientia Potentia Est

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