By Dave Squires,  Co-author of The Ungettable Joke

It was, I'm sure, not the intent of Professor Peter Higgs to run afoul of the grand assertions of his colleague from Cambridge. But, nonetheless he has taken Doctor Hawking's godless Grand Design theory and thrown it on the ash heap. Hawking himself said he had a $100 "bet with Gordon Kane of Michigan University that the Higgs particle wouldn't be found." With one or two caveats, and a smile, he admits he may have lost the bet. I appreciate that Mr. Hawking has a sense of humor.

Hawking previously spoke of his conviction that the whole model of the Universe was complete and did not require God (see external article). Given that he had bet against the Higgs particle and the Standard Model of the Universe that it confirms, and in view of the self-contradictory nature of the theory he previously posed, should Hawking now retract his previous assertions of a Godless Universe? I confess, I do not know if the two ideas are completely and mutually exclusive. But, perhaps Mr. Hawking and Mr. Higgs do know, and can offer an answer.

In any case, it seems once again that Kurt Godel's proof (see previous article) has placed an impenetrable wall between human logic and the founding of the Universe. We may discover how it functions, but perhaps never mathematically define why it came about. My own sense is, that mathematics is a product of the Universe and its Creator. That is, math is a tool that allows for measurements and definitions of what is, not of why it came to be. Godel's proof would seem to agree, and the true source and reason of existence seems securely hidden from prying human eyes.

Curiously though, the Higgs boson is a creative particle, perhaps reflecting part of the Creator's nature: somehow, the particle emits a field that imparts mass to passing particles. This is quite a trick since E=MC² says that energy must be drawn from the universe to create mass. It seems the Higgs boson might be an "anti-Michael Bloomberg" particle -- making everything fat instead of stealing sodas from kids in New York. Anyway, can we now envision replicating things from pure energy? Who knows -- perhaps the RonCo "Boson the Cloner" will show up soon at an electronics store near you.

By Dave Squires,  Co-author of The Ungettable Joke