Is the “God Particle” the link between science and religion?

[hvn_nbr_2]

6. Here are a couple of my thoughts

The term "the God particle" doesn't mean what one is likely to think, based on that name. In fact, it was a joke to the scientist who coined the term. Leaping from that term to something about spirituality is really quite a leap.

"the 'God Particle,' without which, scientists tell us, there would be no life in the universe": My understanding is that the particle makes mass, not life, possible. In fact, I guess that that indirectly means that it makes life possible but there is no direct connection there. It would be more accurate to say that the particle makes stars, planets, asteroids, flying clumps of rock and ice, and swirling galactic dust clouds possible. Basically anything in the universe that depends on gravity, which operates on mass, would be impossible without it since there would be no mass.

I haven't kept up with physics over the years, so I'm not real clear about a lot about the Higgs boson, but I seriously doubt that it has anything at all to do with creationism or evolution, other than to the extent and in the manner that gravity has to do with those things.

In my experience and opinion, some scientists such as Fritjof (sp?) Capra, Russell Targ, and others speak sensibly about connections between science and spirituality, but usually when non-scientifically literate people try to connect science and spirituality, they most often just reveal their ignorance of science and say rather laughable stuff that gives scientists chuckles.