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Jesus Particles
By Stew | posted 10/09/2008
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." (Genesis 1:1)
Over in Europe they just started up the "Large Hadron Collider," a giant velodrome in miniature with trillions of protons riding bicycles around a 17-mile-round tube at close to the speed of light, or about 11,000 laps per second. Unlike more traditional velodromes, not all bicycles go in the same direction; in fact, half go one way and half go the other, so that billions of head-on bicycle collisions are created. Physics paparazzi will take millions of photos of this proton carnage, about which National Enquirer reporters will write up stories describing the dismembered protons (their limbs and other body parts are called "hadrons") and editorial writers will concoct new GUTs, or so-called Grand Theories of Everything. (Many believe they've misspelled this three-letter word beginning with 'G' that explains everything, but more on that later.)
You are probably familiar with atoms. The simple picture of an atom that you may carry around in your head is of a miniature solar system with protons and neutrons in the center and electrons orbiting the nucleus. Fifty years ago, that was as tiny as we could all think.
But now-a-days we understand that atoms contain hadrons, which are in turn, combinations of "quarks" bound together by what physicists call the "strong force." Protons and neutrons are examples of hadrons. Protons are what zip around the Collider until they collide. The human goal of the Collider is to create collisions that break these hadron protons into different types of quarks and other supposed subatomic particles.
The reason that we need an 11-mile tube in which to accelerate the protons (rather than an 11-foot tube) is that scientists are trying to put enough energy into the collisions that they create conditions similar to those of the early universe, during which existed massive particles held together by enormous amounts of energy. Proving the existence of these particles is the great challenge of the Large Hadron Collider. Depending on which particles are proven to exist, a number of different theories in physics may be proven. For example, it may be proven that for each particle that we know exists, there is also a super-heavy "sparticle" that existed at the super-high energy levels of the early universe (actually in the first one-hundred-trillion trillionth of a nanosecond). At that time, each electron and quark may have been paired with a respective matching super-heavy selectron and squark. These super-heavy articles "condensed" into the space-time of Einsteinian physics. In this theory, sparticles have not existed naturally since right at the beginning of time.
Another theory, one that is likely to be proven in some form or other, is string theory, which imagines all particles and waves as vibrating packets of energy. String theory will likely be proven, simply because string theory is so flexible and general that it encompasses almost any possible physical reality. String theory also postulates that beyond our three dimensions of space and one of time may exist many additional dimensions that are bound up tightly within each particle. (Alas, it's easy to say that we live in an eleven-dimensional universe, but quite a bit harder to visualize what that means!)
One other conjecture of physicists may be proven. It's hoped that we'll find evidence of the Higgs Particle (sometimes called the God Particle), named after the physicist Peter Higgs, who was one of the first to conceive the idea in 1966. The Higgs Particle gives us a clue about how at the beginning of time God may have created matter in the first place. According to the theoretical Higgs Mechanism, a high energy Higgs particle becomes unstable after it loses energy and collapses into a Higgs Field, which is like a molasses, or a Higgy pudding, everywhere in space that creates drag on all the otherwise massless particles in the universe. The drag of the Higgs field everywhere is what we experience and observe as mass and as the world of substance.
So what does all this have to do with Jesus? By analogy, I'll claim, the idea of a trinity- the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit-is consistent with the Higgs and with what we perceive as reality. High-energy Higgs particles are similar to the Father. Higgs particles (and other sparticles) that release energy to this world and create mass in the process, are similar to the way in which God created the universe. The Higgs Mechanism suggests how a massless, high-energy God descends to this world as Jesus, the Son, and then exists in the flesh with the drag of sin all around. In this world the drag of the Higgs Field assures us of our sinful nature, while a new particle – the low-energy sparticle of the God Particle-is the Jesus Particle, which exists as a personal God bound up in an invisible spiritual dimension of each Christian. Ultimately, the Son is resurrected when the Father provides the Son with enough energy to regain his original state, but for those of us living in the world, it remains a drag. All people are subatomic, low energy particles. When we become Christians we become massless Jesus particles, who, when combined, constitute the Holy Spirit.
That's my theory. I think there's some substance to it. One way to test it would be to build a Large Christian Collider Community and check out what sorts of Christian particles and Christian forces arise. Finally, I note that the definition of the Catholic Mass is derived from the Old English word "maess," meaning "dismissal at the end of a religious service." In this sense, the meeting of the church community and its release into the world is like a "class dismassed." More familiarly, celebration of God's descent into the world through his son Jesus is what we call Christmas, or more literally, I think, Christ Mass. Maybe God and Higgs were onto something. Unfortunately, I can already hear many of you echoing the famous words of boxer Roberto Duran, who said "No mas!" To that I say, Merry Christmas!
To respond to this message, email Stew at stewka@comcast.net.
