In Search of God?


Almost surreptitiously, in one corner of the world, deep underneath the ground, a massive idea has been taking shape. Today, everybody knows about it. The Large Hadron Collider, the ultimate particle accelerator, will be the instrument in Man's attempt to unravel the mystery of this universe. On the 27 kilometer long accelerator, buried a hundred meters under the ground, rests the hopes of hundreds of scientists to achieve the unimaginable - to find the origin of all creations in this universe. The search ends in a particle that forms the core of all matter, a particle hitherto unseen and undetected by Man but one that has shown all indications of its existence. This particle, the Higgs Boson, named after 79 year old physicist Peter Higgs, also called the "God Particle" much to the chagrin of Higgs, who is a staunch atheist, promises to unravel the mystery of the birth of the cosmos. Detecting this particle as soon as it is born is the prime objective of the biggest experiment in particle physics till date. It is believed that this mysterious particle was given out a billionth of a billionth fraction of a second after the Big Bang that created the universe. So, it is during this infinitesimal time period that this particle, if it does exist, can be "seen" or detected. Scientists expect to recreate the conditions that existed during that flicker of a second after the Big Bang with the help of the Large Hadron Collider. Two beams of protons, accelerated to hitherto unknown speeds (almost equal to that of light) by means of powerful magnetic fields will be smashed against each other to release a scatter of subatomic particles among which might possibly be the elusive "God Particle". This particle, physicists believe, is the missing link in the Standard Particle Theory, the missing link between matter and mass. As Particle Physics has established, all known particles that constitute matter have no mass of their own. If discovered, mankind will have found a lot of answers to this vast, ever expanding cluster of masses in orchestrated motion we have come to know as the universe. Scientists round the world will be training their sights on the aftermath of the monumental collision inside the LHC through hundreds of detectors lining the walls of the accelerator in a hope of detecting the God of all particles. It might prove to be the turning point in modern scientific research.


Now the question arises - do we really want to find God, or even move forward in that direction? Although physicists are eager to find the root of all existence, I am not so sure mankind as a whole would be better off solving this particular riddle. In fact, it wouldn't be surprising if some would be more scared of this than the prospect of possible black holes emerging in the aftermath of the collision. Among others, the two things that have held this world together for ages are faith and belief. Belief in the supreme designer and creator of all matter in existence - God. As the mysteries of the universe are explained more and more, the fascinations that have held mankind in awe of the universe and the Supreme Power behind it may gradually disintegrate. There may even come a time when religion and rituals may indeed become irrelevant. Of course, the evolution of a final theory explaining each and every aspect of this universe seems far, even improbable at this point but anything even close to that will be enough to loosen the leash of the Supreme Authority on this world. As a natural consequence, lines that divide good and evil, God and Satan, honesty and dishonesty, virtue and immorality may gradually fade into nothingness. Is mankind ready to live in a Godless universe? A million dollar question, if there ever was one.

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