Limbaugh, you magnificent bastard! You’ve done it again!
April 9th, 2008 Central Archivist Posted in Commentary |
Rush Limbaugh has managed to pretty much completely misunderstand science
once again, this time in reference to the Higgs Boson, or “god particle.”
The Higgs boson is a theoretical particle that researchers have yet to discover, though many are certain it must exist given current cosmological models. The man who gave the particle its name, Peter Higgs, announced the other day he was certain the particle would be found within his lifetime, and this was the story to which Limbaugh was referring.
The media has dubbed the Higgs boson the “god particle” (after the book The God Particle: If the Universe is the Answer, What Is the Question?), and of course the author of that piece used that term in his article.
And that’s what Limbaugh latched onto. The entire transcript can be found here, but I’m excerpting the choice parts for you, gentle reader.
LIMBAUGH: In other words, he’s looking for a “God particle.” He’s looking for a particle to prove God.
No sir, that is not what he is trying to do. He is simply trying to determine whether this particular theoretical particle exists so as to strengthen or cause to be rejected a particular cosmological model.
LIMBAUGH: Dr. Higgs, please, just look out the window. You see that tree? You see the grass? Whatever is outside your window, all of it, it’s God particles. Every aspect of it is God particles.
Now, how would looking out a window strengthen or cause to be rejected the cosmological model in question?
LIMBAUGH: Today, the existence of the invisible field is widely accepted by scientists, who believe it came into being milliseconds after the Big Bang created the universe–” there’s no way that anybody could possibly know this.
Why not? The Big Bang theory has quite a bit of evidence supporting it, from red-shifted light to cosmic background radiation. You would know this if you actually took a little time to research before pontificating.
LIMBAUGH: At any rate, “Scientists at the centre hope the process will produce clear signs of the boson, dubbed the ’God particle’ by some, to the displeasure of Higgs, an atheist,” naturally. Naturally it would be an atheist doing this research.
Why would it naturally be an atheist doing this research? Are you saying science is the domain of atheists?
Then Limbaugh goes into a diatribe about the movie, Expelled (his points have already been covered here). However, in this particular case, he claims the researchers looking for the Higgs boson are all “Darwinists.” How cosmology is related to biology is anyone’s guess, but evidently they are in Limbaugh’s fevered imagination.
Limbaugh has shown time and again he despises science and believes all scientists to be part of some left-wing, anti-God conspiracy. And yet, like so many others who hold that same view (many because of Limbaugh), he enjoys the fruits of that hated science every
day.
April 9th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
As usual, the people attempting to critique science are the least equipped to do so. Limbaugh reveals his near total ignorance of science when he claims that “there’s no way that anybody could possibly know this” — to him, if you’re not there watching something happen, it’s impossible to know anything whatsoever about it. Excuse me while I roll my eyes.
First, if everything in the Universe was obvious and viewable, we wouldn’t need science. You’d think that even the anti-science dolts would have snapped to this, and realized that the whole *point* of science is to employ methods that allow us to reliably learn about things that are beyond the immediately viewable. Yes, Virginia, it *is* possible to know about things that happened near the start of the Universe.
Second, as you point out, even a quick Google would have answered this point for Limbaugh, if he had bothered. In times past, it might have been excusable to be ignorant on such things, but not today, with so much knowledge available for free on the internet, so easily. Limbaugh has no excuse for his boneheaded comments, other than his arrogance and presumptions.
Finally, for those who are interested in how the Big Bang scenarios are explored and validated, see for example: http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/astronomy/bigbang.html
April 9th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
I remember a great Larry Gonick cartoon on the Higgs Boson and its importance to the electroweak theory. That would have been enough to help anyone understand it.
April 9th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
Al Franken was right.
April 9th, 2008 at 2:30 pm
Too bad that Franken himself is also a dumbf*#k and an obnoxious jerk to boot.
April 9th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
True, but he’s *their* embarrassment, not ours.
April 9th, 2008 at 5:06 pm
Just a quibble. The discovery–or otherwise–of the Higgs boson won’t strengthen or weaken any particular cosmological model. What it will address is a particular unification scheme for the electromagnetic and weak forces, referred to as the “Electroweak model”.
The reason press reports emphasize the Big Bang is because–according to the models–for a brief period following the initial instant, there was enough energy density to realize such particles in quantity. That’s not really relevant to the current research, but “the Big Bang” is a buzzword most readers know.
Since that fleeting epoch, Higgs bosons have only existed as ghosts, far over the edge of reality, barely able to touch the matter of the physical world. And yet, that ghostly touch is enough to give mass to every massive particle in the universe. Maybe “the God particle” isn’t such a bad name, after all.
April 9th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Limbaugh’s been going on some pretty embarassing rants about science lately. I like hearing him talk politics, but when he starts talking about science, I cringe. I’m no expert by any means, but I do know what science is and what it isn’t. The contradiction is that he always tells us to use logic not emotion when dealing with any political topic, but when it comes to anything evolution-related, it’s clear he’s all emotion, no logic.
He had been off the science topic for quite a while too.
April 9th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
Thoro: I feel much the same way when I read PZ Myers or Phil Plait talk about politics instead of science. Facts, evidence, logic and reason all suddenly go out the window for them when they stride outside of their specialties, and it’s all about emotion, passion, and knee-jerk impulsivness.