Faith and/in Science

This latest blog post again is long overdue. To overcome the gaps in writing I feel that the blog will have to evolve. So to continue in the correct fashion with the fundamental idea the same – Science for the masses, these articles may have to become more concise to become more regular. Of course I will attempt to post up a longer article here and there, when time allows or indeed the subject matter is overwhelmingly crying out for documentation on numerous blog rolls.

So this latest (more concise) post concerns what I read in the guardian today concerning the quest for the Higgs Boson. Many know the Higgs by its more common name as the ‘God particle’ as what it will do if discovered is unite theorems in the standard model of physics that are currently lacking the evidence of such a particle. Now I am not going to begin to explain quantum physics just yet (firstly as this is supposed to be a concise post, and secondly because that is not what this article is about) but I am going to talk about what the article concerned itself with, which is that because scientists are trying to discover a new particle then they by default have faith in god...

Before I continue I must put on record that I like the guardian. I think of it as a good newspaper with writers that can develop a well rounded argument. But it must seriously up its game if it is going to publish such articles as ‘Science is my god’ found here: http://t.co/jQoUTm8

My issue with this article is that it’s myopic, childlike view of a topic, taking a media given name (the ‘God’ particle) and immediately thinking that all the scientists, whether at CERN, the Tevatron or in a garden shed, must have faith in order to conduct any form of experimentation. This just simply isn’t true, especially for the search for the Higgs. These bosons are predicted by the standard model of physics. A model that does not rely on faith or belief. It hinges on something far more important; data, facts, truth.

This is what is so fundamental to science that it cannot be underlined enough. Science does not go hand in hand with faith – one can hope the Higgs is found, or hope an experiment goes well, just the same that one can hope for good weather or Tottenham Hotspur win the Premier League next year. This hope or faith does not underpin the subject matter, it is just a preferred outcome. We all have our preferences.

The beauty of science is that the presence or absence of a predicted moiety will only result two things: one theory being consigned to the waste bin, and another living on to be scrutinised another day. Long may this continue and I have faith in that being the case.