Just the fact that some are posing the question, "Does the Higgs Boson Discovery Resolve the Religion-Science Debate?," says a lot. For a start, the "discovery" has not yet been confirmed. As far as I'm aware the various scientist involved with the Large Hadron Collider have not checked all their data or run the various tests necessary to confirm their initial finding. If theists (and the media) were more science literate they would know that there is a big difference between reporting initial findings for the sake of scrutiny and review and a confirmed discovery.
Setting aside that rather significant detail it is also important to note that simply giving a theoretical particle a nickname does not necessarily tell you anything about it. Referring to the Higgs-Boson Particle as the "God Particle" does not prove that it has any relationship to any religious doctrine or the concept of God. It's a nick name and an inappropriate one at that.
A third point involves the very idea of a debate between religion and science. It really isn't much of a debate. There is nothing in the structure of religion that requires evidence at all. How do you "debate" what amounts to willful ignorance? The very nature of these two institutions place them at odds with one another. That is also not really a matter of debate since all you need to do to reach such a conclusion is list their traits and compare them.
Basically, there isn't much of a debate to be had. The Higgs-Boson doesn't apply. And, if there is a resolution it would have to be that Science prevails over religion since it is based on evidence and religion is based on nothing more than wishful thinking, fear, and personal opinions.
No comments:
Post a Comment