Science does in fact work through falsifiability. If the LHC doesn't end up finding a Higgs Boson, then the Higgs Boson theory in its present form will have been disproven. That is just how science and experimentation works. "What we can't prove doesn't exist" is an inherently false statement and incorrect world view because there are countless things we cannot test or prove that must exist. To quote Einstein, "No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove me wrong."

I wasn't arguing from ignorance because I wasn't asserting an untestable theory. All I said in my comment was that many religious practices have personal and societal benefits that atheists tend to undervalue because they are associated with religion. I've seen data that supports my theory.
In reply to this comment by demon_ix:
>> ^Lodurr:
Science doesn't say "what we can't prove doesn't exist"; science says "what we can disprove doesn't exist." That's the distinction in which I find many atheists to be on the wrong side.

You are wrong, sir. It's "what we can prove exists". Science will never attempt to prove a negative. If a scientist told you he managed to disprove God, you would only change your own definition of God and say "A ha, science, you are the one who's wrong".

What you are doing is called Arguing from Ignorance, which basically means you maintain that something is true because no one proved it isn't.

If we were to actually debate the merits of religion, God and why your particular faith is the correct one, you would not be able to finish the argument without invoking either the "Because the Bible says so" or "God did it" arguments. In the place of the words "Bible" or "God" insert the names of your holy scripture and deity, as are relevant to your particular faith.

>> ^Lolthien:
I clicked on this honestly because I thought it was going to be a quick explanation of how the Higgs Boson was supposed to work. Guess not.


I assumed it was either that or a history of Catholicism.

I clicked on this honestly because I thought it was going to be a quick explanation of how the Higgs Boson was supposed to work. Guess not.

Is that you, higgs-boson?

>> ^NobleOne:
Why are they using the CERN to find the God particle?


I'll move off-topic a bit in defense of CERN and the LHC. Sorry, I can't help myself.

In short: they're not. First of all, the "god particle" is a dumb hype name popularized by the media for the hypothesized Higgs boson, a scalar particle the existence of which is predicted by the standard model of particle physics. The misconception is that, if found, it would 'explain all of physics', which is, again, a major overstatement. Secondly, they're using the LHC for a variety of different purposes - you should read the wikipedia article, because it's a fascinating experiment and people are, for the most part, largely ignorant or misinformed about it.

^I took AST 205: Stars and Galaxies awhile back and had to learn all about the particle physics, GUT and spectroscopy, etc.

Bear with me, it was a few semesters ago so I may forget/muddle some of the details. Basically, as the molecules of hydrogen, helium and other trace gases are squeezed together by gravity, the electron shells of the individual atoms begin to collide with one another. When they do, the electrons collide and change their orbit around the nucleus, and then revert back to their original orbit. This releases a store of energy as photons. The same thing happens when an X particle strikes a weak boson. The larger the bang, the farther the change in orbit and the more energy is released, when it returns back to its original orbit. Or something like that. Look up the Bohr model, Planck's Constant, etc for more info.

Long story short, the resulting photons which are released make up the electromagnetic energy in the universe, depending on frequency, etc.

It's all through measuring light via spectroscopy and a little triangulation that we can tell the size, rotation speeds, mass, velocity, age, composition, etc, of the stars and galaxies, nebulae and other celestial objects. Pretty crazy once you get your head all wrapped around it.

The coffee maker was probably made by that company Higgs & Boson.

Man's technology has exceeded his grasp. - 'The World is not Enough'
Zealous Nobel Prize hungry Physicists are racing each other and stopping at nothing to try to find the supposed 'Higgs Boson'(aka God) Particle, among others, and are risking nothing less than the annihilation of the Earth and all Life in endless experiments hoping to prove a theory when urgent tangible problems face the planet. The European Organization for Nuclear Research(CERN) new Large Hadron Collider(LHC) is the world's most powerful atom smasher that will soon be firing subatomic particles at each other at nearly the speed of light to create Miniature Big Bangs producing Micro Black Holes, Strangelets and other potentially cataclysmic phenomena.
Particle physicists have run out of ideas and are at a dead end forcing them to take reckless chances with more and more powerful and costly machines to create new and never-seen-before, unstable and unknown matter while Astrophysicists, on the other hand, are advancing science and knowledge on a daily basis making new discoveries in these same areas by observing the universe, not experimenting with it and with your life.
The LHC is a dangerous gamble as CERN physicist Alvaro De Rújula in the BBC LHC documentary, 'The Six Billion Dollar Experiment', incredibly admits quote, "Will we find the Higgs particle at the LHC? That, of course, is the question. And the answer is, science is what we do when we don't know what we're doing." And CERN spokesmodel Brian Cox follows with this stunning quote, "the LHC is certainly, by far, the biggest jump into the unknown."
The CERN-LHC website Mainpage itself states: "There are many theories as to what will result from these collisions,..." Again, this is because they truly don't know what's going to happen. They are experimenting with forces they don't understand to obtain results they can't comprehend. If you think like most people do that 'They must know what they're doing' you could not be more wrong. Some people think similarly about medical Dr.s but consider this by way of comparison and example from JAMA: "A recent Institute of Medicine report quoted rates estimating that medical errors kill between 44,000 and 98,000 people a year in US hospitals." The second part of the CERN quote reads "...but what's for sure is that a brave new world of physics will emerge from the new accelerator,..." A molecularly changed or Black Hole consumed Lifeless World? The end of the quote reads "...as knowledge in particle physics goes on to describe the workings of the Universe." These experiments to date have so far produced infinitely more questions than answers but there isn't a particle physicist alive who wouldn't gladly trade his life to glimpse the "God particle", and sacrifice the rest of us with him. Reason and common sense will tell you that the risks far outweigh any potential(as CERN physicists themselves say) benefits.
This quote from National Geographic exactly sums this "science" up: "That's the essence of experimental particle physics: You smash stuff together and see what other stuff comes out."
Find out more about that "stuff" below;
http://www.SaneScience.org/
http://www.LHCFacts.org
http://www.risk-evaluation-forum.org/anon1.htm
http://www.lhcdefense.org/
http://www.lhcconcerns.com
Popular Mechanics - "World's Biggest Science Project Aims to Unlock 'God Particle'" - http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/extreme_machines/4216588.html"

Exactly, Priceless!

And Nobel feuding begins as Dr. Hawking (who estimates a 1% chance micro black holes will be created but thinks they will evaporate), bets $100 that the Higgs Boson will not be discovered and Professor Peter Higgs attacks Dr. Hawking's scientific credibility. More collider humor at http://www.lhcfacts.org/?cat=29

Higgs-Boson for the win!

If they detect the Higgs Boson I will post a naked video of myself on the Sift.

I worship Higg's Boson.

No this is it, this is exactly right. Electromagnetism is matter, you can derive equations for matter, for particles, including DeBroglie waves that quantum physicists completely ignore, from Maxwells equations for electromagnetism.

It doesn't say that Einstein was fundamentally wrong, it says that the interpretation of relativity was wrong, and it was, unfortunately. Einstein said that the more predictions that quantum theory made the sillier it looked. This clip is exactly the line of thinking that Einstein was on, so was Tesla, so was Maxwell, so was Bohm.

You only need two forces for this to work, gravity and electromagnetism. And we have only ever detected those two forces. The mainstream view is that you need four forces, gravity, EM, and strong and weak nuclear forces. Guess what, no matter how big a particle accelerator we build we cannot find those nuclear forces. Every time we build a bigger one the equations are changed and they put the Higgs at a higher energy level. When you try to work them out on paper you need infinite energy to hold the protons together in the nucleus of every atom. They botch the infinities, they normalise them, it's a complete mess.

I'll tell you what's not convincing, dark matter, dark energy, and force carrying particles like the Higgs and the other Bosons. You can derive everything from gravity and EM, you can even derive relativity from the same EM wave equations.

If you want to study something that isn't convincing, you need look no further than the mess that is quantum mechanics and string theory. Many are abandoning the field. Relativity is safer in the hands of the plasma guys than it is with the charlatans of QM and String.

>> ^Johnald_Chaffinch:
Hypothesizing about the Higgs boson or force carrying particles is basic physics (with some common sense).


I entirely disagree, force carrying particles are anything but common sense. But that's for another forum...

Hypothesizing about the Higgs boson or force carrying particles is basic physics (with some common sense). On the other hand what true Christians believe in is MagicMan in the sky that kills babies and plants dinosaur bones to trick his pet humans..
But really just believing in any god for real is far more absurd than using science and coming to logical conclusions.