HOW AND WHY?

Scientists say they have discovered the long sought Higgs boson particle. It has been identified as the “God” particle. We are being told today that now scientists can finally explain exactly how the universe was created using pure physics. This new discovery has been called the “missing link.” We are being told that unimaginable new discoveries will now take place because of this discovery. Horizons which we were previously unable to attain are now at our fingertips. We are going to be amazed. Okay, go ahead, amaze me. Tell me how this all came to be.  

When I was a senior in high school we had a motto. “He who knows how will find his place in life. He who knows why will be his boss.” Concerning this new discovery, I love discovery. I love research. I love learning new things and I believe most scientists do as well. But, knowing how the universe was created, while that is very valuable information to be sure, does not explain why the universe was created. To call this new discovery the “God” particle as an explanation of creation which eliminates the necessity of actually having God in the equation, may satisfy some curious minds, but it does not satisfy mine.

Some time ago the late comedian Dave Gardner asked this simple question. “If this is the earth and all of our universe, and all that humans can comprehend, and if that is all we can imagine, what’s all that around it? What is it hanging from? What is it sitting on?” In other words, if the Higgs boson particle is the “missing link,” who created it? Where did it come from?

I personally am amazed by scientific discovery. I am entertained by the many and  varied explanations of our creation. I know that most of those who attempt these explanations are sincere. But, I would rather listen to a Baptist preacher from a tiny church in a tiny community explain why we were created than the most exalted and intelligent physicist try to explain how we were created.

Why am I here? And where is here? Are humans just an accident of evolution? Is a sunrise on a warm spring day with colors of purple and orange and pink, with gentle breezes blowing in my face the result of some particles accidentally bumping into each other? Is a cold winter night with a full moon shining on newly fallen snow hushing the sounds of the world the result of random movement through an unimaginable universe with no one  in control? I think not. When I look into the face of my beautiful wife or my equally beautiful children and grandchildren am I to believe that all of this is just an accident?

The older I have gotten the less proof I need of my faith. The older I get the more I can accept by that faith the things which some feel compelled to scientifically explain.

I am neither a scientist nor am I a religious scholar. I am just a simple man who has questioned many things in my life. Like the difference between wisdom and intelligence. Now I have learned that perhaps wisdom is a commodity reserved for the old. Perhaps as we age, we find peace in the simple explanations. Perhaps the hows in life fall away and are taken over by the whys. I just know it works for me.

Ron Scarbro