God and Particle Physics

HELEN

Reading the September Creation Research Society Quarterly this morning and thought I would share the lead article here. It’s called “Particle Physics and Paley’s Watch” by Jerry Bergman and Don B. DeYoung. Don’t let the subject or title throw anyone off – the message is easy and interesting.

Something I have noticed before is that when we take a manmade object, such as a sewing needle, and examine it under a microscope, the imperfections become strikingly apparent.

However just the opposite happens when we look at something in nature. Look at a pine needle, a flower, a cell – whatever you like – and the more magnified it gets, the more perfect and complex it appears.

That is what this article is about.

Here are a few scattered paragraphs from the article which explain this very clearly in terms of the tiniest of known bits of things – the particles of particle physics:

A century ago it was thought that atoms were simple, small, and homogenous masses of uniform shape, or perhaps a specific set of definite shapes. The last century of research on submicroscopic matter has revealed a new and far more complex watch-like atomic and subatomic structure than anyone earlier imagined, especially in the realm of elementary particles.

… Physics research has discovered a whole new world consisting of many elementary particles, but scientists are still unable to explain why these particles exist and exactly how they work to produce the world at the macro-molecular level.

…Research has produced an enormous body of knowledge that helps scientists to formulate laws and delineate patterns and relationships, but comparatively little understanding exists of the why of that which is discovered. Physical laws only summarize what we observe, they do not explain it. Many phenomenon happen in a lawful, probabilistic way, but without a known reason or identifiable cause. The complexity of the building blocks of matter is such tht even the long-established law of causality has been questioned by some. Of course, because the cause of something is unknown does not prove that a cause does not exist, only that we have not yet identified it.

…Several physical quantities in nature including energy, momentum, and electric charge display constancy or conservation. Why these conservation laws exist cannot be explained by natural science alone. Creationists would conclude that they display the profound dependability and predictability planned in the Creation.

…Why do patterns, symmetry, and laws exist in nature? Some experts might answer that the task of science is to find out only how nature works, not why. But this response reveals the incompleteness of natural science alone. Ultimate truth about the universe must also deal with God’s construction and continuing oversight of His creation.

The body of the article is a very clear and well-written summary of what the various particles which are identified by physicists are and – as far as we can tell – how they generally behave. The very fact that different behaviors are associated with different particles indicates they are distinct even at that extraordinarily tiny level, and that the interactions show a complexity and design which is virtually impossible to deny.

[ October 30, 2002, 12:48 PM: Message edited by: Administrator ]

 

PAUL OF EUGENE

I've always felt that our knowledge that the universe consists of fundamental basic particles is evidence, of a sort, for God.

Fundamental physical particles have some strange characteristics. Each of them is exactly like others of the same kind, in every possible detail. To know one electron is to know them all.

I liken this to a master chess player who is playing a game of chess entirely within his mind. He only announces the moves. His opponent may also be a "blindfold player" or refer to a chessboard; it doesn't matter. Just like the electrons in the universe, all the pawns in his game are each exactly like the others. They perfectly maintain their relationships each with the other.

I find myself unable to imagine the universe except as a great thought in the mind of God! I cannot think of anything else to account for the perfection of the equality of the components.