Belief in bosons

Published on 10/07/2012 00:00

James D Brown (Letters, 10 July) tells us that the discovery of the Higgs boson has removed “the last vestiges” of grounds for belief in a creator God. Not so.

The scientific importance of the discovery is no doubt immense and the intellectual achievement magnificent, but its theological significance is nil, beyond establishing that if God made the universe He made it with Higgs bosons in it.

Our understanding – at any rate, cutting-edge theoretical physicists’ and mathematicians’ understanding – of the nature of matter may have taken a quantum leap forward, but the grounds for religious belief are exactly where they were before.

Derrick McClure

Rosehill Terrace

Aberdeen

I DO so agree with James D Brown. It is indeed high time we moved on to a more elevated plane. Perhaps he can tell us how the “God particle” came to be.

James Clark

Roseburn Maltings

Edinburgh

James Brown is correct that the discovery of Higgs boson dispels the need for an imaginary creator. However, I feel that, as Freud concludes, we as a species will still be prone to superstitious nonsense as long as we fear death.

Christians can therefore rest easy as their days of interfering in the lives of others and telling lies to children about an eternity in hell are far from over.

What Christians should have to explain is why the God who created black holes, quasars, pulsars, stars and galaxies would possibly bother about what two people do in the privacy of their own bedroom.

Alan Hinnrichs

Gillespie Terrace

Dundee