Rush Limbaugh is an anti-intellectual fat snob who deserves nothing less than the constant shun of every community he claims to be a part of as well as the intellectuals whom he despises so. He shows an incredible misunderstanding of science and basically everything else in reality.
In an article of his, he talks about the Higgs boson and completely distorts what the Higgs boson actually is. It’s not a particle to prove god. It’s something that exists in the insane field of quantum physics. The physics of how things work at a sub-atomic level. Quantum physics is largely theoretical, so we’re still trying to directly prove something that we know exists via mathematics.
But what is it?
The answer can be found by doing something called a google search. I found this through a google search that lead me to Wikipedia:
The Higgs boson (sometimes referred to as the God particle by the media) is a hypothetical massive scalar elementary particle predicted to exist by the Standard Model of particle physics. It is the only Standard Model particle not yet observed, but would help explain how otherwise massless elementary particles still manage to construct mass in matter. In particular, it would explain the difference between the massless photon and the relatively massive W and Z bosons. Elementary particle masses, and the differences between electromagnetism (caused by the photon) and the weak force (caused by the W and Z bosons), are critical to many aspects of the structure of microscopic (and hence macroscopic) matter; thus, if it exists, the Higgs boson has an enormous effect on the world around us.
Source: Wikipedia, Higgs boson
In normal human terms, the Higgs boson is what keeps all matter in the universe together. If you look deep enough, you’ll find that everything is made of… nothing! Usually I lose people after that part, so if you’re still with me, what we find when we look deep enough in something is that there’s empty space. A ton of it. So much empty space that you could essentially equate it with infinity. This, as you can imagine, is a big, big problem. The Higgs boson was calculated mathematically to exist as the force that keeps everything in the universe afloat. Nothing exists, but the Higgs boson keeps all of this nothingness together.
Still with me? No? I’m not either, don’t worry.
Quantum mechanics (and physics) is probably the weirdest thing in the universe. Erm, literally. You want to explain something you can’t see? Invoke quantum physics to explain it until you can. Most insulting is that Rush trivializes all of the hard work in order to prove these theoretical particles:
“The 78-year-old’s original efforts in the early 1960s to explain why the force, dubbed the Higgs field, must exist were dismissed at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research. 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.
Again, mathematical calculations are central to science. Einstein, before being able to prove the existence of things such as black holes, proved them with mathematical calculations. By the logic of Mr. Limbaugh, there’s no way that Einstein actually did this.
Another insulting moment is when he says this:
Snerdley just said to me there are a lot of physicists that believe in God.
In reality, the real world in which we live, there are a lot of physicists who use the term ‘god’ metaphorically for the universe. Of course Rush will never admit this, because in his monkey brain it’s true. There’s no reasoning with these people.
Naturally, Mr. Limbaugh continues his embarrassing tirade and trivializes science to everyone who listens. That’s a lot. Even though Rush is a gigantic faggot and one of the dumbest people in the world, he has a gigantic following. Conservative fundamentalist Christians love him. As you can see, there’s reasons for why they love him. These reasons are mostly bullshit, — actually all bullshit — but they continue to follow him.
I think my favorite comedian and philosopher, noted as “Chomsky with dick jokes…” can sum up my thoughts on Rush.
I won’t even get into Expelled and Ben Stein, both excruciatingly wrong. But I will say this, we have a new inductee into the List of Creationist Failures!
- Kirk Cameron (Lying for Jesus: Kirk Cameron Edition)
- Dr. Jason Lisle (Reading Answers in Genesis: Probably easier when high.)
- Lee Strobel (Lee Strobel: Ex-Atheist or just ignorant?)
- Ray Comfort (Banana: Proof of creationism., Ray Comfort has a blog, Ray Comfort: What the fuck, man?)
- Rhonda Storms (Fuck Rhonda Storms)
- Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (DO SOMETHING IN LOUISIANA! QUICK!, Now the Candle Burns at both Ends)
- Rush Limbaugh
Give a warm welcome to our number seven! (I should induct Ben Stein some time soon… or maybe Bill ORLY.)
Copache,
I just went though and read your post and something stood out to me, you normal human explanation of what the higgs particle is and where it comes from. You state the following:
“In normal human terms, the Higgs boson is what keeps all matter in the universe together.”
I am assuming that you derived that from the Wikipedia entry that you referenced. (although I am not sure how) The Higgs boson is not responsible for keeping all the matter in the universe together. It is literally what the Wikipedia article stated it was. In the 1960’s theoretical particle physicists where working on the Standard Model. One of the key aspects of these equations was that they were locally gauge invariant, which basically means that if one performs a gauge transformation on the fields, the form of the original equation stays the same. The issue was that the W and Z, along with other particles did not have mass according to these equations. Many different attempts were made to put mass into the equations, most notably in the form of a mass term. It was however found that the addition of a mass term by hand would break the gauge invariance, and we cant have that. So, that is where the Higgs field came into play. When it was added into the standard model and the machinery worked though, the particles acquired mass terms in the end. The beautiful part is that this was done without violating gauge invariance. So in essence, the Higgs particle would add credence to the theory that a Higgs field, a field with a non zero vacuum expectation value, is responsible for the mass property of matter. It really is a fun topic.
This is why I love the comment system.
Thanks for pointing out my error. I should probably study it more before saying anything else that would be a big mistake, but physics isn’t really my field, as you can imagine!
Thanks again, really happy that people put forth this much effort. Haha.
I have to take away some cool points because you called Rush Limbaugh a faggot. That’s not really very nice, especially to the faggots all over the world who are decent, upstanding, well dressed people.
I think the real point that should be made about Rush Limbaugh is that he has made his hay on convincing his listeners that he has a vast intellect and that he is an expert on everything. To admit he doesn’t know anything about quantum mechanics would be a blow to the facade that he has built around himself.
At best we would expect Rush to not mention subjects he is unfamiliar with. But it is almost guaranteed that he will spout nonsense about unfamiliar subjects just to keep up his appearance of god-like omniscience.
I wasn’t using “faggot” in relation to homosexuals (you could lump me up in either bisexual or homosexual myself — I’m not sure which). I was using it as a childlike derogatory term, as Rush himself would be likely to do.