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Peter Higgs, Man Behind Discovery Of ‘The God Particle’, Dies At 94
Higgs predicted the existence of a new particle — the so-called Higgs boson – also known as ‘The God Particle – in 1964. Interestingly, the subatomic particles known as bosons are named after Indian Physicist Satyendra Nath Bose.
Nobel prize-winning physicist Peter Higgs, who proposed the existence of the Higgs boson particle, which is also known as ‘The God Particle’ died at age 94, the University of Edinburgh said on Tuesday.
The university, where Higgs was emeritus professor, said he died Monday “peacefully at home following a short illness.”
Higgs predicted the existence of a new particle — the so-called Higgs boson — in 1964. Interestingly, the subatomic particles known as bosons are named after Indian Physicist Satyendra Nath Bose.
The Higgs boson is popularly known as the “the God Particle”, a name which originated from Nobel Prize-winning physicist Leon Lederman’s book on the particle which he titled the “Goddamn Particle” — due to “frustration” over how difficult it was to detect, as per information available on the internet.
Higgs won the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work, alongside Francois Englert of Belgium.
Edinburgh University Vice Chancellor Peter Mathieson said Higgs, who was born in the Scottish capital, was “a remarkable individual – a truly gifted scientist whose vision and imagination have enriched our knowledge of the world that surrounds us.”
“His pioneering work has motivated thousands of scientists, and his legacy will continue to inspire many more for generations to come,” Edinburgh University Vice Chancellor Peter Mathieson said.
(with inputs from the Associated Press)
On the Spiritual Meaning of the “God Particle” (the Higgs Boson)
The media’s interpretation of the significance of the discovery a few months before it was made reflects the need most humans feel to find ultimate spiritual reality.
08 MARCH 2016 · 10:43 CET
FASTEN YOUR SEATBELTS!
We are about to take a journey together into the fundamental building blocks of the material world and the fundamental forces that hold it together, the world of elementary particle physics. It is a fascinating world with a beautiful, simple structure. Once upon a time in the 20thcentury, physicists had found so many “elementary particles” that we started calling it “the particle zoo.” But now we know there are only 12 building block particles, along with their 12 antiparticles. There are also five force-carrying particles for the strong nuclear force, the electromagnetic force, and the weak nuclear force. All the other particle-like objects turn out to be composites of the 24 held together by some combination of the five force carriers. So, there is a deep level of organization we can see today. But are these all that exist? How many layers does the onion have? We will see…
Why should the average Christian leader agree to a journey through this fascinating, but foreign, territory? The spiritual points involved are very important in the modern cultural context. Getting a foothold in the discussion can really help our own faith. It will also strengthen our efforts to help others find faith in Christ and in the Biblical world view. So, I’d like to welcome you to join me for the journey! It is not often that the culture opens the door as wide as the “God Particle” does to focused spiritual conversations with the average person.
WHAT IS THE HIGGS BOSON—“THE GOD PARTICLE”?
The Fourth of July 2012 was more than a United States National holiday. It was the day scientists at the world’s highest energy particle collider, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Geneva, Switzerland, announced the definite observation of a new particle called “the Higgs Boson.” Two independent experiments at the LHC had observed it to a high degree of certainty. They announced the momentous discovery together to strengthen the public impact. It represents an additional elementary particle of the force-carrying variety. So, now there are 24 building block particles and 6 force carrying particles, counting all of the antiparticles.
The existence and properties of the Higgs particle were proposed 50 years ago by Peter Higgs and several others to fix problems in the Standard Model. It has been sought since then to complete the theory for all matter and energy, except for the law of gravity and the possible existence of gravitons to mediate the gravitational force. The challenge to understand the behavior of gravity in elementary particle terms still remains unmet.
WHY IS THE HIGGS IMPORTANT?
The mass of a particle is the resistance it has to acceleration when the particle is nearly at rest. This is called the “rest mass” of a particle. Since the Higgs exists, we can assume that all of the building block particles have zero mass, and gain their observed inertia or rest mass by their interaction with the Higgs. We do not need to introduce the mass of each particle as an independently measured constant. The theory now exhibits a high degree of symmetry at high energies, as observed.[1]
Now we only need to measure the Higgs mass and the strength of its interaction with other particles, or two independent constants. It represents another level of integration and simplification of the particle world—an improved Standard Model with Higgs! Physicists generally regard a comprehensive theory where most constants can be calculated, and only a few are arbitrary and must be measured as a superior understanding of reality.
ON TO THE SPIRITUAL MEANING: MEDIA MATTERS!
The media’s interpretation of the significance of the discovery a few months before it was made reflects the need most humans feel to find ultimate spiritual reality. In the British Daily Mail online version on 13.12.11, an article appeared by Fiona Macrae titled: “God” particle found: Atom smasher reveals Higgs boson, the key to the universe.” Wow! That should catch anyone’s attention. It sounds like science has finally found God!
The article begins:
“The ‘God particle,’ hailed as the holy grail of physics, may have been glimpsed for the first time. … The Higgs boson is regarded–by those who know about such things–as the key to understanding the universe. Its job is, apparently, to give the particles that make up atoms their mass. Without this mass, these particles would zip though the cosmos at the speed of light, unable to bind together to form the atoms that make up everything in the universe, from planets to people.”
Even a Dilbert cartoon from that time reflected the struggle people have relating to the traditional concept of God—the Creator of all things Who thinks He owns the universe and has a right to say how it should be run. On the Dilbert website for this strip is the following short commentary:
“Today’s (21.2.12) Dilbert is subtle. It serves as a nice illustration of the confusion created when physicists talk about the “God particle” – they are not using God in the sense of a personal deity liable to add hassles to one’s life by issuing awkward commandments…”
The fundamental issue is, “Who/what will be in control?” The mysterious particle that gives mass to the other particles, without which we could not exist, sounds like a safer creator.
It seems to be a human desire to seek some transcendent spiritual entity, but to avoid any concept of God who could make actual claims on how we live our lives—our autonomy! Certainly, as far as we know, the Higgs would not make demands. Even better, we can control it, and even ignore it if we like.
Let’s do a little linguistic analysis of the Daily Mirror quote. “God particle” and “holy grail” set the tone of serious spirituality surrounding the Higgs. “Glimpsed” suggest its elusiveness and mystery, which are qualities people expect God to have. This particle is “regarded by those who know about such things as the key to understanding the universe.” A deity or God substitute would be such a key. “Its job is to give the particles … their mass.” So, the Higgs has a very active role, and like a good creator, can cause things to be a certain way. If the Higgs would not carry out this active role, we could not exist—we owe our existence to the Higgs. Wow! It sure sounds like a God. But, did the scientists who discovered it really give the “God Particle” name to the Higgs?
THE “GOD PARTICLE” NAME FOR THE HIGGS
Fifty years is a long time to wait between suggested existence of a new particle and its observation! The Higgs discovery has been very elusive as mirrored in another Dilbert cartoon (5.22.13).
In the spirit of this Dilbert strip, in 1993 Nobel Laureate particle physicist Leon Lederman wrote a book entitled, “The God Particle: If the Universe is the Answer, What is the Question?” In the first chapter, he says because the Higgs was so elusive from heroic experimental efforts to detect it, he wanted to title the book “That God D*** Particle.”
He says that Harper, his publisher, rejected the title as bad for marketing. They finally agreed on the “God Particle” and the rest of the title. It certainly does help sales, but readers will find the book quite devoid of mystical spirituality. They may appreciate its casual personal recounting of the recent history of particle physics. But I could not find any attempted answer to the question posed in the title.
So the book that popularized this name for the Higgs is a bit of bait and switch. Lederman’s original desire for the title seems much more accurate for its actual contents. In the decade following Lederman’s book, our monthly trade journal, Physics Today, published a number of letters to the editor that expressed dismay at the attempt to connect the particle physicists sought with things spiritual. They rightly said that science cannot prove or disprove anything about metaphysics. Its methods are not appropriate to illuminate spiritual or supernatural dimensions to reality. But in grant proposals and public explanations of what the 1,000 physicists hoped to achieve and why we should pay their salaries, the spiritual mystique was useful.
For example, in Discover Magazine, January 2009, in an article on the Large Hadron Collider, we find:
“In fact, the goal of the LHC is at once simple and grandiose: It was created to discover new particles. One of the most sought of these is the Higgs boson, also known as the God particle because, according to current theory, it endowedall other particles with mass.”
Note again use of a strong action verb “endowed.”[2]
THE ACTUAL “HOLY GRAIL” OF PHYSICS
Elementary particle physicists search for the set of laws underlying the behavior of the entire natural world. If one can say at all that they seek a “Holy Grail,” it would be a “Theory of Everything” (TOE), not just one element like the Higgs. Physicists believethat mathematics is the proper language for expressing fundamental natural laws. So the basic search is to find the right mathematical expression in the right mathematical system that captures all we can measure of the behavior of the natural world.[3]
OF EFFECTIVE CAUSES AND UNCAUSED CAUSES
Mathematics is the outcome of shared human logic and quantitative reasoning. It seems to be a discipline that is somehow built into the human brain. But how do we know that mathematical expressions have any active power as natural causes? We know they are at least descriptions of how nature behaves. But from where does nature actually get its lawful behavior? What are the effective causes?
We observe a system or network of natural cause and effect going on that is well described by the right mathematics. Science is a detailed study of this system with the goals of prediction of future events and the inference of past events. We assume that the network will be and has been steady. If it were time-dependent, we believe we could observe that dependence. So far no evidence of time dependence of fundamental constants has been observed, however.
It appears we cannot decide whether mathematics causes anything. The real question is whether the system of natural cause and effect had an uncaused cause? Or, is the system itself the Uncaused Cause of all else, and mathematics has effective causal power?
Was the system of natural law created? If so, does it maintain itself, or does it require maintenance? These are fundamental metaphysical questions, and most of us scientists believe they are undecidable using the methods of science. Naturalism says the system of laws is the Uncaused Cause. Christianity (and other monotheistic religions) says an Intelligent Personal Being is the Uncaused Cause and the system of laws is a created system.
The Bible also says that the system requires momentary maintenance—that the laws are continually imposed by the Creator on the natural world:
“He {Jesus Christ} is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. (Colossians 1:15-17, ESV); … but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.(Hebrews 1:2-3a, ESV)”
Therefore, the real question boils down to whether the Higgs actively “endows” the other particles with mass, or whether God “endows” the particles with mass by maintaining a structure of natural law that includes the Higgs. In other words, is the Higgs a creator, or a created thing? When we think critically about the essential issues here, it is evident that science will not tell us an answer. The Higgs is only a God competitor at the level of metaphysics. To call it “the God particle” is merely Naturalism in disguise. Or, it could be a whimsical joke in the minds of some. For Christians, the Higgs and the effects it causes as described by the mathematics is a wonderful fascinating element of physical reality, the laws for which are created and maintained by God.
THE UNREASONABLE EFFECTIVENESS OF MATHEMATICS IN THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES
Since mathematics seems to be the universal inevitable outcome of human logic, how does it come to describe nature so fully? Is the Uncaused Cause, our Creator God (Jehovah), a mathematician, or is Mathematics God? Galileo answered these questions when he said,
“God is a Mathematician and understands all theorems. But the few we can understand are just as true as they are in the Mind of God, because of their logical necessity.”
Another view on this question by Nobel Laureate Eugen Wigner was presented in a famous lecture in 1960 that got published with premier billing on pages 1-14 of that year’s volume of Communications in Pure and Applied Mathematics.[4]
The article is entitled, “The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Mathematics in the Physical Sciences.” It argues that we have no explanation for how very abstract mathematics so fully captures the network of cause and effect in the physical world, and even repeatedly has led the way to discovery of new and wider, more accurate descriptions.
The great mathematician fully, almost ruthlessly, exploits the domain of permissible reasoning and skirts the impermissible. That his recklessness does not lead him into a morass of contradictions is a miracle in itself: certainly it is hard to believe that our reasoning power was brought, by Darwin’s process of natural selection, to the perfection which it seems to possess.
Though in general Wigner accepts Darwin’s Theory, he rejects it as a reasonable explanation for the match between human mind and natural cause and effect. Further:
“It is, as Schrödinger has remarked, a miracle that in spite of the baffling complexity of the world, certain regularities in the events could be discovered.”[5]
Another example follows:
“The miracle of the appropriateness of the language of mathematics for the formulation of the laws of physics is a wonderful gift which we neither understand nor deserve. We should be grateful for it and hope that it will remain valid in future research … “
In this article he uses the word “miracle” 12 times! He calls it a gift several times. Four times he says we should be grateful for the happy circumstance that mathematics proves to be the magic key for describing natural cause and effect. Wigner was not known to hold any firm metaphysical system like Christianity, Naturalism, etc. For him there is no Doer of the miracle, no Giver of the gift, and no Recipient for our gratitude.
In addition to Schrödinger, another Nobel Laureate physicist, Richard Feynman, agrees with Wigner:
“The fact that there are rules at all to be checked is a kind of miracle; that it is possible to find a rule, like the inverse square law of gravitation, is some sort of miracle. It is not understood at all…”[6]
We see here a glaring inherent weakness of Naturalism. Three eminent physicists agree that something unexpected and unexplainable from their perspective is observed in the almost magical connection of human reasoning and the functioning of natural cause and effect. As Christians, we are smiling at their intellectual agony, because God has revealed a clear answer to the mystery:
“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:27-28, ESV)
CONCLUSION
Surely our understanding of the world can be strengthened by these key insights. First, mathematics certainly describes natural cause and effect. But there is no scientific way to attribute actual causal power to a law of nature, a mathematical statement. To assume that only natural causes operate rules out in advance causes beyond natural ones, and blinds one to a fully valid description of reality. For a full description, mysteries like why human-origin mathematics lays bare the structure of natural law need good explanations. The Biblical world view, which affirms the existence of natural law but reveals to us key things about supernatural intervention in the real world, provides a fuller explanation. In particular, it explains the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics in the physical world.
We can explain this to others in faith conversations and ask them why the Biblical world view is not actually superior here. God is the Mathematician, who caused the whole Universe according to mathematical laws. He continually imposes this structure on the natural world at all places and at all times. Truly, in Him, we live and move and have our being. He has given us the beautiful gift of minds that will also do enough mathematics to understand, marvel at, and appreciate His handiwork. Using these minds and with His ethical and moral guidance, we can exercise responsible dominion and control over nature. Wow, now that’s a real God!
Thus says the LORD, who gives the sun for light by day and the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar—the LORD [I AM] of hosts is his name: “If this fixed order departs from before me, declares the LORD [I AM], then shall the offspring of Israel cease from being a nation before me forever.”(Jeremiah 31:35-36, ESV)
Richard Carhart is Professor of Physics Emeritus at the University of Illinois at Chicago, having taught there and done research for 35 years.
The Forum of Christian Leaders (FOCL) is the sponsor of the European Leadership Forum (ELF), which seeks to unite, mentor, and resource European evangelical leaders to renew the biblical church and re-evangelise Europe. This happens first at the ELF’s annual meeting that occurs each May in Poland. In addition to the ELF, FOCL is host to an online media library and learning community for evangelical Christians. Learn more at foclonline.org and euroleadership.org; or join us on Twitter @FOCLonline and Facebook Forum of Christian Leaders.
[1] The augmented theory also does not generate infinity for answers in some computations. Physicists had developed a trick called renormalization that got rid of the infinite part of the answer and left only the part that agreed with experiments. However, this procedure was not considered intellectually acceptable in the long run!
[2] See the end of the article for an appendix that gives an introductory description of the building blocks and force carriers of the material world.
[3] This search had led to the formulation of a function called “the Lagrangian density of the Standard Model for Particles” and the rules for computing with it. I’m pretty sure most of you have no idea what a Lagrangian density is or how to use it. You would need a full graduate education in theoretical particle physics to learn what it is and how to use it to make predictions. All you need to know is that particle behavior is described by a specific mathematical system with known properties, formulas, and computational methods.
The basic search, then, is for the correct mathematical expression for the Lagrangian density that would predict the outcome of all our observations of nature. The Standard Model Lagrangian, which you can find on Wikipedia, had some mathematical problems. As we said, it sometimes predicted infinity for numerical answers. It also did not yield the symmetry that had been observed in high energy particle collisions.
To review, one additional term containing the field for the Higgs boson was added to the Standard Model Lagrangian, and all of the particle masses were set to zero. Then the infinite answers disappeared, and the particles exhibited rest masses at low energies that could be computed. The extra term corresponds to a new force. The Higgs boson is the force mediator, joining the gluon, the photon, and the weak bosons.
Wikipedia also presents this new Lagrangian in the same article. It has zero particle masses and the formula for the Higgs term. The Higgs mass and force strength constants are left as unknowns to be measured. The new “Standard Model with Higgs” Lagrangian density better describes the real world of natural processes.
But it could not be the TOE before we include gravity. Sadly, we realized recently that a theorem proven years ago by mathematician, Kurt Gödel, means a TOE cannot exist. Famous physicist Steven Hawking has publicly agreed to this conclusion, so we will never find this Holy Grail.
[4] Wigner, Eugen, Communications in Pure and Applied Mathematics, 13, 1960, pp. 1-14.
[5] Schrödinger, Erwin, What is Life?, Cambridge University Press, 1945. Schrödinger also says that this second miracle may well be beyond human understanding, (page 31).
[6] Feynman, Richard, The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen-Scientist, Perseus Books, 1998, p. 23.
On November 21, 2014 I received a letter from Nobel Laureate Harry Kroto and it said:
…Please click on this URL http://vimeo.com/26991975
and you will hear what far smarter people than I have to say on this matter. I agree with them.
Harry Kroto
I have attempted to respond to all of Dr. Kroto’s friends arguments and I have posted my responses one per week for over a year now. Here are some of my earlier posts:
Arif Ahmed, Sir David Attenborough, Mark Balaguer, Horace Barlow, Michael Bate, Patricia Churchland, Aaron Ciechanover, Noam Chomsky,Alan Dershowitz, Hubert Dreyfus, Bart Ehrman, Stephan Feuchtwang, David Friend, Riccardo Giacconi, Ivar Giaever , Roy Glauber, Rebecca Goldstein, David J. Gross, Brian Greene, Susan Greenfield, Stephen F Gudeman, Alan Guth, Jonathan Haidt, Theodor W. Hänsch, Brian Harrison, Hermann Hauser, Roald Hoffmann, Bruce Hood, Herbert Huppert, Gareth Stedman Jones, Steve Jones, Shelly Kagan, Michio Kaku, Stuart Kauffman, Lawrence Krauss, Harry Kroto, George Lakoff, Elizabeth Loftus, Alan Macfarlane, Peter Millican, Marvin Minsky, Leonard Mlodinow, Yujin Nagasawa, Alva Noe, Douglas Osheroff, Jonathan Parry, Saul Perlmutter, Herman Philipse, Carolyn Porco, Robert M. Price, Lisa Randall, Lord Martin Rees, Oliver Sacks, John Searle, Marcus du Sautoy, Simon Schaffer, J. L. Schellenberg, Lee Silver, Peter Singer, Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, Ronald de Sousa, Victor Stenger, Barry Supple, Leonard Susskind, Raymond Tallis, Neil deGrasse Tyson, .Alexander Vilenkin, Sir John Walker, Frank Wilczek, Steven Weinberg, and Lewis Wolpert,
In the third video below in the 150th clip in this series are his words and my response is below them.
50 Renowned Academics Speaking About God (Part 1)
Another 50 Renowned Academics Speaking About God (Part 2)
A Further 50 Renowned Academics Speaking About God (Part 3)
________
Below are two letters I wrote to Dr. Higgs and in the letter from September 2015 I respond to his quote:
_
Enjoy the pictures of an amazing life
Harry Kroto with his father above
Margaret with David and Stephen
leaving Liverpool for Canada 1964
Kroto and his wife, Margaret.
______________
June 11, 2016
Dear Dr. Higgs,
Since I wrote you last I was very sad on April 30th to learn of the passing of the great scientist Harry Kroto. Not only was Harry Kroto a Nobel Prize winning chemist but judging from comments of his close friends, Kroto was an even better man personally.
Tim Logan, chair of Chemistry and Biochemistry at Florida State: “What always brought out the best in Harry was his wife, Margaret. Margaret and Harry were always together, until the end of Harry’s life. She served as his business manager, scheduling his many speaking engagements around the world, organizing the travel, and supporting him in many, many ways. What I found so remarkable is that even after 57 years together, they were so obviously in love. Harry would include photos and sketches he made of her in his lectures, and he always acknowledged her as his moral compass.”
HAVE YOU EVER WONDERED WHY I WAS PROMPTED ORIGINALLY TO WRITE YOU? It was because Harry Kroto took the time in 2014 to correspond with me. After I wrote him in the spring and summer of 2014 he emailed me twice and then sent me a letter in November of 2014. In that letter he referred me to a film series Renowned Academics talk about God that featured your comments.
Furthermore, your full interview appears on the VEGA website which Kroto founded, and he was so proud of his videos from the VEGA website that he played some of them during his speech at a BEYOND BELIEF CONFERENCE (he actually spoke there in 2006, 2007 and 2008 and all those speeches are on You Tube). I have always been fascinated by brilliant individuals and recently I had the opportunity to come across a very interesting article by Michael Polanyi, LIFE TRANSCENDING PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY, in the magazine CHEMICAL AND ENGINEERING NEWS, August 21, 1967, and I also got hold of a 1968 talk by Francis Schaeffer based on this article. ISN’T IT AMAZING THAT JUST LIKE KROTO’S FAMILY POLANYI HAD TO FLEE EUROPE BECAUSE OF HITLER’S INSANE GRUDGE AGAINST THE JEWS!!!!I know you don’t believe in God or the Devil but if anyone was demon-possessed it had to be Hitler.
Polanyi’s son John actually won the 1986 Nobel Prize for Chemistry. This article by Michael Polanyi concerns Francis Crick and James Watson and their discovery of DNA in 1953. Polanyi noted:
Mechanisms, whether man-made or morphological, are boundary conditions harnessing the laws of in
animate nature, being themselves irreducible to those laws. The pattern of organic bases in DNA which functions as a genetic code is a boundary condition irreducible to physics and chemistry. Further controlling principles of life may be represented as a hierarchy of boundary conditions extending, in the case of man, to consciousness and responsibility.
__
Francis Schaeffer (30 January 1912 – 15 May 1984[1]) and his wife Edith (November 3, 1914 – March 30, 2013)
James Watson (1928-) and Francis Crick (8 June 1916 – 28 July 2004)
Michael Polanyi, FRS[1] (11 March 1891 – 22 February 1976)
John Charles Polanyi, (born 23 January 1929)
___
John Scott Haldane (2 May 1860 – 14/15 March 1936)
| J. B. S. Haldane | |
|---|---|
Haldane in 1914
|
(5 November 1892 – 1 December 1964)
Maurice Wilkins (15 December 1916 – 5 October 2004)
Erwin Schrödinger (12 August 1887 – 4 January 1961)
Sir Peter Medawar ( 28 February 1915 – 2 October 1987)
Barry Commoner (May 28, 1917 – September 30, 2012)
I am sending you this two CD’s of this talk because I thought you may find it very interesting. It includes references to not only James D. Watson, and Francis Crick but also Maurice Wilkins, Erwin Schrodinger, J.S. Haldane (his son was the famous J.B.S. Haldane), Peter Medawar, and Barry Commoner.
Thank you for your time. I know how busy you are and I want to thank you for taking the time to read this letter.
Sincerely,
Everette Hatcher,
P.O. Box 23416, Little Rock, AR 72221, United States, cell ph 501-920-5733, everettehatcher@gmail.com
September 21, 2015
Dear Dr. Higgs,
On You Tube I saw this quote from you:
I think you have to be rather more careful about the whole debate between science and religion than some people have been in the past. I certainly know a lot of scientists in my field who are believers and I accept that. I don’t happen to be one myself, but maybe that’s just more a matter of my family background than that there’s any fundamental difficulty about reconciling the two.
I like your attitude towards the subject of God. You seemed to keep an open mind.
Recently I had the opportunity to come across a very interesting article by Michael Polanyi,LIFE TRANSCENDING PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY, in the magazine CHEMICAL AND ENGINEERING NEWS, August 21, 1967, and I also got hold of a 1968 talk by Francis Schaeffer based on this article. Polanyi’s son John actually won the 1986 Nobel Prize for Chemistry. This article by Michael Polanyi concerns Francis Crick and James Watson and their discovery of DNA in 1953. Polanyi noted:
Mechanisms, whether man-made or morphological, are boundary conditions harnessing the laws of in
animate nature, being themselves irreducible to those laws. The pattern of organic bases in DNA which functions as a genetic code is a boundary condition irreducible to physics and chemistry. Further controlling principles of life may be represented as a hierarchy of boundary conditions extending, in the case of man, to consciousness and responsibility.
I would like to send you a CD copy of this talk because I thought you may find it very interesting. It includes references to not only James D. Watson, and Francis Crick but also Maurice Wilkins, Erwin Schrodinger, J.S. Haldane (his son was the famous J.B.S. Haldane), Peter Medawar, and Barry Commoner. I WONDER IF YOU EVER HAD THE OPPORTUNITY TO RUN ACROSS THESE MEN OR ANY OF THEIR FORMER STUDENTS?
Below is a portion of the transcript from the CD and Michael Polanyi’s words are in italics while Francis Schaeffer’s words are not:
My account of the situation will seem to oscillate in several directions, and I shall set out, therefore, its stages in order.
I shall show that:
- Commoner’s criteria of irreducibility to physics and chemistry are incomplete; they are necessary but not sufficient conditions of it.
- Machines are irreducible to physics and chemistry.
- By virtue of the principle of boundary control, mechanistic structures of living beings appear to be likewise irreducible.
4. The structure of DNA, which according to Watson and Crick controls heredity, is not explicable by physics and chemistry.
5. Assuming that morphological differentiation reflects the information content of DNA, we can prove that the morphology of living beings forms a boundary condition which, as such, is not explicable by physics and chemistry (the suggestion arrived at in the third item).
…The relationship between the two controls–the devices of engineering and the laws of natural science--is not symmetrical. The machine is a machine by having been built and being then controlled according to the principles of engineering. The laws of physics and chemistry are indifferent to these principles; they would go on working in the fragments of the machine if it were smashed. But they serve the machine while it lasts; machines rely for their operations always on the laws of physics and chemistry.
You can think of it for example in an automobile. The man building the automobile must take in account the structural properties he uses. But when the automobile is junk and put into the automobile graveyard and smashed by the giant press into a small piece of metal it is still open to the same analysis and it has the same chemical and physical properties. The mere fact of these same chemical and physical properties existing does not mean we still have the automobile.
____________
Stephen C. Meyer, Senior Fellow, Discovery Institute; on October 7, 2008 wrote the article, “A Scientific History and Philosophical Defense of the Theory of Intelligent Design,” and here is a portion of it:
Just as the mathematicians at Wistar were casting doubt on the idea that chance (i.e., random mutations) could generate genetic information, another leading scientist was raising questions about the role of law-like necessity. In 1967 and 1968, the Hungarian chemist and philosopher of science Michael Polanyi published two articles suggesting that the information in
DNA was “irreducible” to the laws of physics and chemistry (Polanyi 1967: 21; Polanyi 1968: 1308-12). In these papers, Polanyi noted that the DNA conveys information in virtue of very specific arrangements of the nucleotide bases (that is, the chemicals that function as alphabetic or digital characters) in the genetic text. Yet, Polanyi also noted the laws of physics and chemistry allow for a vast number of other possible arrangements of these same chemical constituents. Since chemical laws allow a vast number of possible arrangements of nucleotide bases, Polanyi reasoned that no specific arrangement was dictated or determined by those laws. Indeed, the chemical properties of the nucleotide bases allow them to attach themselves interchangeably at any site on the (sugar-phosphate) backbone of the DNA molecule. (See Figure 1). Thus, as Polanyi (1968: 1309) noted, “As the arrangement of a printed page is extraneous to the chemistry of the printed page, so is the base sequence in a DNA molecule extraneous to the chemical forces at work in the DNA molecule.” Polanyi argued that it is precisely this chemical indeterminacy that allows DNA to store information and which also shows the irreducibility of that information to physical-chemical laws or forces. As he explained:
- Suppose that the actual structure of a DNA molecule were due to the fact that the bindings of its bases were much stronger than the bindings would be for any other distribution of bases, then such a DNA molecule would have no information content. Its code-like character would be effaced by an overwhelming redundancy. […] Whatever may be the origin of a DNA configuration, it can function as a code only if its order is not due to the forces of potential energy. It must be as physically indeterminate as the sequence of words is on a printed page (Polanyi 1968:1309).
________
Thank you for your time. I know how busy you are and I want to thank you for taking the time to read this letter.
Sincerely,
Everette Hatcher,
P.O. Box 23416, Little Rock, AR 72221, United States, cell ph 501-920-5733, everettehatcher@gmail.com
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FRANCIS SCHAEFFER ANALYZES ART AND CULTURE Part 53 THE BEATLES (Part E, Stg. Pepper’s and John Lennon’s search in 1967 for truth was through drugs, money, laughter, etc & similar to King Solomon’s, LOTS OF PICTURES OF JOHN AND CYNTHIA) (Feature on artist Yoko Ono)
The John Lennon and the Beatles really were on a long search for meaning and fulfillment in their lives just like King Solomon did in the Book of Ecclesiastes. Solomon looked into learning (1:12-18, 2:12-17), laughter, ladies, luxuries, and liquor (2:1-2, 8, 10, 11), and labor (2:4-6, 18-20). He fount that without God in the picture all […]
FRANCIS SCHAEFFER ANALYZES ART AND CULTURE Part 52 THE BEATLES (Part D, There is evidence that the Beatles may have been exposed to Francis Schaeffer!!!) (Feature on artist Anna Margaret Rose Freeman )
______________ George Harrison Swears & Insults Paul and Yoko Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds- The Beatles The Beatles: I have dedicated several posts to this series on the Beatles and I don’t know when this series will end because Francis Schaeffer spent a lot of time listening to the Beatles and talking […]
FRANCIS SCHAEFFER ANALYZES ART AND CULTURE Part 51 THE BEATLES (Part C, List of those on cover of Stg.Pepper’s ) (Feature on artist Raqib Shaw )
The Beatles in a press conference after their Return from the USA Uploaded on Nov 29, 2010 The Beatles in a press conference after their Return from the USA. The Beatles: I have dedicated several posts to this series on the Beatles and I don’t know when this series will end because Francis […]
FRANCIS SCHAEFFER ANALYZES ART AND CULTURE Part 50 THE BEATLES (Part B, The Psychedelic Music of the Beatles) (Feature on artist Peter Blake )
__________________ Beatles 1966 Last interview I have dedicated several posts to this series on the Beatles and I don’t know when this series will end because Francis Schaeffer spent a lot of time listening to the Beatles and talking and writing about them and their impact on the culture of the 1960’s. In this […]
FRANCIS SCHAEFFER ANALYZES ART AND CULTURE Part 49 THE BEATLES (Part A, The Meaning of Stg. Pepper’s Cover) (Feature on artist Mika Tajima)
_______________ The Beatles documentary || A Long and Winding Road || Episode 5 (This video discusses Stg. Pepper’s creation I have dedicated several posts to this series on the Beatles and I don’t know when this series will end because Francis Schaeffer spent a lot of time listening to the Beatles and talking and writing about […]
FRANCIS SCHAEFFER ANALYZES ART AND CULTURE PART 48 “BLOW UP” by Michelangelo Antonioni makes Philosophic Statement (Feature on artist Nancy Holt)
_______________ Francis Schaeffer pictured below: _____________________ I have included the 27 minute episode THE AGE OF NONREASON by Francis Schaeffer. In that video Schaeffer noted, ” Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band…for a time it became the rallying cry for young people throughout the world. It expressed the essence of their lives, thoughts and their feelings.” How Should […]
FRANCIS SCHAEFFER ANALYZES ART AND CULTURE Part 47 Woody Allen and Professor Levy and the death of “Optimistic Humanism” from the movie CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS Plus Charles Darwin’s comments too!!! (Feature on artist Rodney Graham)
Crimes and Misdemeanors: A Discussion: Part 1 ___________________________________ Today I will answer the simple question: IS IT POSSIBLE TO BE AN OPTIMISTIC SECULAR HUMANIST THAT DOES NOT BELIEVE IN GOD OR AN AFTERLIFE? This question has been around for a long time and you can go back to the 19th century and read this same […]
FRANCIS SCHAEFFER ANALYZES ART AND CULTURE PART 46 Friedrich Nietzsche (Featured artist is Thomas Schütte)
____________________________________ Francis Schaeffer pictured below: __________ Francis Schaeffer has written extensively on art and culture spanning the last 2000years and here are some posts I have done on this subject before : Francis Schaeffer’s “How should we then live?” Video and outline of episode 10 “Final Choices” , episode 9 “The Age of Personal Peace and Affluence”, episode 8 […]
FRANCIS SCHAEFFER ANALYZES ART AND CULTURE Part 45 Woody Allen “Reason is Dead” (Feature on artists Allora & Calzadilla )
Love and Death [Woody Allen] – What if there is no God? [PL] ___________ _______________ How Should We then Live Episode 7 small (Age of Nonreason) #02 How Should We Then Live? (Promo Clip) Dr. Francis Schaeffer 10 Worldview and Truth Two Minute Warning: How Then Should We Live?: Francis Schaeffer at 100 Francis Schaeffer […]
FRANCIS SCHAEFFER ANALYZES ART AND CULTURE Part 44 The Book of Genesis (Featured artist is Trey McCarley )
___________________________________ Francis Schaeffer pictured below: ____________________________ Francis Schaeffer “BASIS FOR HUMAN DIGNITY” Whatever…HTTHR Dr. Francis schaeffer – The flow of Materialism(from Part 4 of Whatever happened to human race?) Dr. Francis Schaeffer – The Biblical flow of Truth & History (intro) Francis Schaeffer – The Biblical Flow of History & Truth (1) Dr. Francis Schaeffer […]
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