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To: andy224; Aric2000; Right Wing Professor
"...the £1.5 billion Large Hadron Collider... will determine once and for all whether the Higgs boson, a mysterious fundamental particle held to give matter its mass, really exists... If not, the maxims of modern physics will be thrown into disarray."

"The boson was nicknamed the “God particle” by the Nobel laureate Leon Lederman for its centrality to the cosmos. Although it will be so small that its presence can only be calculated, not seen...

Ahhh. I see.

So our "maxims of modern physics" (much like our 'understanding' of Evolution) rely upon our having faith in something which not only have we never proven the existence of, but even once found cannot be seen. Hmmm....

Yeah, that Science stuff sure is an "end all, be all" for people who choose not to rely on Faith alone, huh? Way too funny.

;-/

57 posted on 06/09/2003 10:43:52 AM PDT by Gargantua (Embrace clarity.)
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To: Gargantua
So our "maxims of modern physics" (much like our 'understanding' of Evolution) rely upon our having faith in something which not only have we never proven the existence of,

Not at all. There doesn't have to be a Higgs particle; it's just that the data we have strongly suggest that it exists, and it is mathematically the simplest answer to a number of questions. If the Higgs boson does not exist, something very interesting and obvious happens at LHC energies. A gigantic resonance (known as a "techni-rho") appears at energies less than about 1 TeV, caused by a very strong interaction between the W-bosons. And if there is no Higgs and no techni-rho...

but even once found cannot be seen. Hmmm....

It depends what you mean by "seen". Z bosons cannot be "seen", but the fact that they decay in our detectors means that they can be sensed with the right goggles, and that they possess reality in exactly the same sense as rocks and trees. I can't see songs, either; is my belief that they exist a matter of faith?

74 posted on 06/09/2003 11:27:05 AM PDT by Physicist
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To: Gargantua
Science makes predictions, then when we get advanced enough, we test those predictons.

No faith involved, if the prediction is disproven, we move on and find another hypothesis that would cover the evidence available, and if that hypothesis fails, then wefind another. It is called SCIENCE.

Whereas if it were "faith" no amount of evidence would convince us we were wrong.
75 posted on 06/09/2003 11:28:27 AM PDT by Aric2000 (If the history of science shows us anything, it is that we get nowhere by labeling our ignorance god)
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