It’s the Atheist Particle, actually

Human Angle
Babu Gogineni

In 1977, the distinguished physicist Leon Lederman and his colleagues at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory in the US believed that they were on the verge of discovering a new elementary particle. An elementary particle is a fundamental building block of the universe and Lederman and his team predicted that this sub-atomic particle would have a mass of about 6.0 GeV or Giga Electron Volts, the units of mass used in particle physics. They even decided to call it the Upsilon Particle, after the Greek Letter Upsilon (Υ) – but realisation came that this was a wrong call, and the non-existing particle was promptly renamed ‘Oops-Leon!’

Leon Lederman is a Nobel Laureate and an important participant in the global race to discover elementary particles: It was a race that began after Sir J.J. Thomson discovered the electron in 1897, thus showing that John Dalton’s 1803 theory that the atom was the basic unit of matter was wrong. Since then there have been a string of discoveries of sub-atomic particles, some composite and some elementary. Many of these were first predicted by theory and when the evidence was produced, the validity of the theory was confirmed.

Based on the work of thousands of theoretical and experimental scientists, modern science has developed an idea of the universe: the universe is made up of 4% atoms and 20% dark matter & 76% dark energy that we cannot observe. There are four fundamental forces in the universe: the weak nuclear force, the strong nuclear force, electromagnetism and gravity. The universe started with a big bang some 14 billion years ago when all these forces were unleashed. The universe continues to expand.

Babu Gogineni

The observable universe is made of 18 fundamental particles: 6 kinds of quarks, 6 kinds of leptons and 6 kinds of force carriers. These 18 different particles fit into two categories: bosons, named after Satyendranath Bose, which have a full integer spin and transmit force (photons and gluons) and fermions, named after Enrico Fermi, which have an integer spin and make up matter (electrons, protons and quarks).

This standard model explains many phenomena but there are many riddles too. How are the four fundamental forces to be brought together in one single theory which can explain everything? What is dark matter exactly? What happened at the time of the big bang? When the big bang happened why did some of the particles acquire mass while others did not?

In there were nothing that enabled mass, all the elementary particles would keep travelling at the speed of light and would not come together and there would be no atoms, elements, planets or solar systems. In 1964, François Englert and Robert Brout from Belgium and Peter Higgs from Scotland proposed that a boson which endowed mass to other particles would be the answer. This boson soon came to be called the Higgs boson and is the most fundamental particle that could explain the universe to us.

At least six Nobel Prizes have been awarded for work related to the Higgs boson so far, but Peter Higgs and his fellow theorists did not themselves get it! That is set to change now that the Higgs Boson has been detected after two years of observation as protons collided 40 million times a second for two years in the giant 27 km-long Large Hadron Collider at the Centre Européen de Recherce Nucléaire (CERN) in Geneva. In an astonishing achievement, scientists at CERN recreated the early conditions of the big bang and have 99.9% certainty that the particle exists!

Nearly twenty years ago, when the Higgs Boson was still an elusive particle, Leon Lederman wrote that it was “so central to the state of physics today, so crucial to our final understanding of the structure of matter, yet so elusive.” He even called it the ‘God-damned particle’ because it was not to be found! Disastrously, he then had his second ‘Oops-Leon!’ moment when he allowed his publisher to call it the God Particle in the title for his 1993 best seller on the global search for the boson.

Leon Lederman is himself an atheist and he regrets the term, and Peter Higgs who is an atheist too, has expressed his displeasure, but the damage has been done! The God particle is today the most popular name for the Higgs boson. If anything, the discovery of the Higgs boson and the confirmation of the Standard Model of the Universe make God even more unnecessary to explain the universe. In the universe are inscribed laws by which the big bang was initiated and the functioning of the universe sustained. Since we have the Higgs boson we do not need God anymore! If ever there was a Godless or an atheist particle, it is the Higgs boson!

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Atheism to Defeat Religion By 2038

Countries with the best standard of living are turning atheist. That shift offers a glimpse into the world's future.

Religious people are annoyed by claims that belief in God will go the way of horse transportation, and for much the same reason, specifically an improved standard of living.

The view that religious belief will give way to atheism is known as the secularization thesis. The specific version that I favor (1) is known as the existential security hypothesis. The basic idea is that as people become more affluent, they are less worried about lacking for basic necessities, or dying early from violence or disease. In other words they are secure in their own existence. They do not feel the need to appeal to supernatural entities to calm their fears and insecurities.

The notion that improving living conditions are associated with a decline in religion is supported by a mountain of evidence (1,2,3).

That does not prevent some serious scholars, like political scientist Eric Kaufmann (4), from making the opposite case that religious fundamentalists will outbreed the rest of us. Yet, noisy as they can be, such groups are tiny minorities of the global population and they will become even more marginalized as global prosperity increases and standards of living improve.

Moreover, as religious fundamentalists become economically integrated, young women go to work and produce smaller families, as is currently happening for Utah's Mormons.

The most obvious approach to estimating when the world will switch over to being majority atheist is based on economic growth. This is logical because economic development is the key factor responsible for secularization. In deriving this estimate, I used the nine most godless countries as my touchstone (excluding Estonia as a formerly communist country).

The countries were Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Japan, Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom. These nine countries averaged out at the atheist transition in 2004 (5) with exactly half of the populations disbelieving in God. Their gross domestic product (GDP) averaged $29,822 compared to $10,855 for the average country in the world. How long will it take before the world economy has expanded sufficiently that the GDP of the average country has caught up to the average for the godless countries in 2004? 

Using the average global growth rate of GDP for the past 30 years of 3.33 percent (based on International Monetary Fund data from their website), the atheist transition would occur in 2035.

Belief in God is not the only relevant measure of religion, of course. A person might believe in God in a fairly superficial way without religion affecting his or her daily life. One way of assessing the depth of religious commitment is to ask survey participants whether they think that religion is important in their daily lives as the Gallup Organization has done in worldwide nationally representative surveys.

If fewer than 50 percent of the population agreed that religion was important to them, then the country has effectively crossed over to a secular majority. The godless countries by religiosity were Spain, South Korea, Canada, Switzerland, Uruguay, Germany and France. At a growth rate of 3.33 percent per year it would be 2041 before the average country in the world would be at an equivalent level of affluence as these godless nations.

If national wealth drives secularization, the global population will cross an atheist threshold where the majority see religion as unimportant by 2041.

Averaging across the two measures of atheism, the entire world population would cross the atheist threshold by about 2038 (average of 2035 for disbelief and 2041 for religiosity). Although 2038 may seem improbably fast, this requires only a shift of approximately 1 percent per year whether in religiosity or belief in God. Using the Human Development Index as a clock suggests an even earlier arrival for the atheist transition (1).

Is the loss of religious belief something fear? Contrary to the claims of religious leaders, Godless countries are highly moral nations with an unusual level of social trust, economic equality, low crime and a high level of civic engagement (5). We could do with some of that.

Sources
1. Barber, N. (2012). Why atheism will replace religion: The triumph of earthly pleasures over pie in the sky. E-book, available at: http://www.amazon.com/Atheism-Will-Replace-Religion-ebook/dp/B00886ZSJ6/ 
2. Norris, P., & Inglehart, R. (2004). Sacred and secular: Religion and politics worldwide. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
3. Barber, N. (2011). A Cross-National test of the uncertainty hypothesis of religious belief Cross-Cultural Research, 45, 318-333.
4. Kaufmann, E. (2010). Shall the religious inherit the earth? London: Profile books.
5. Zuckerman, P. (2008). Society without God: What the least religious nations can tell us about contentment. New York: New York University Press.

The Bosses of 'Herbalife' have been robbing the Grameen Bank via its customers

Professor Muhammad Yunus is a Bangladeshi economist who, in 1976, attempted to tackle the problem of world-poverty by founding the Grameen Bank. This common-sense institution now distributes more than $100 millions of low interest, small (or micro-credit) loans annually, to persons (mostly women) without collateral, in order to help them to escape the poverty-trap by starting their own businesses and achieving financial self-sufficiency. Muhammad Yunus was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006, along with Grameen Bank, for their campaign to create economic and social development around the world. 

Amongst many other international awards, Muhammad Yunus received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Barack Obama, in 2009.

Although technically it is not classified as a bank in the USA (because it can't accept deposits from the public), in 2008, Grameen America opened its first Branch in the New York borough of Queens. This was followed in 2009, with a branch in the South Side of Omaha, Nebraska, where almost all borrowers have been unemployed, women immigrants from Latin America. 

It has recently been reported that many of the poor women who received their initial $1500 loans from Grameen America in New York and Omaha, have been persuaded to pour this borrowed-cash into 'Herbalife' and other 'MLM income opportunity' frauds, believing that they were going to achieve total financial freedom through buying a quota of products each month whilst recruiting their friends and relatives to duplicate the same endless-chain plan. In this way, numerous empty stores in Omaha were transformed into so-called 'Herbalife Nutrition Clubs.' These were typically draped with green curtains and decorated with posters of soccer stars who play for clubs sponsored by 'Herbalife.' Sadly, a number of these so-called 'Herbalife Clubs' have already vanished and the loans which were used to create them, have not been repaid.

'Herbalife income opportunity' propaganda  from the UK

In reality, all so-called 'MLM income opportunies' have been dissimulated closed-market swindles (i.e. without a significant or sustainable source of revenue other than that deriving from their own contributing participants, due to the fact that 'MLM' products have always been effectively-unsaleable on the open market). Classically, other than an insignificant minority of schills at the top of these pyramids, all so-called 'MLM income opportunities,' have had an 100% rolling loss/churn rate, whilst this key-information has been deliberately hidden from the public by their instigators.

Until recently the Grameen Bank has operated a policy of trusting its clients to make their own choice of business. However, for obvious reasons, certain Grameen staff have belatedly begun to advise their American borrowers not to get involved with 'Herbalife' in particular, and  with 'MLM' in general.

http://online.barrons.com/article/SB50001424053111904370004577390241476503930.html#articleTabs_article%3D1

It is interesting to note that the US federal government's Small Business Administration (without actually naming any so-called 'MLM' companies, because that is forbidden by law) specifically lists all 'pyramid sales plans' as being ineligible for financial assistance; describing them as:


... 'plans, where a participant's primary incentive is based on the sales made by an ever-increasing number of participants. Such products as cosmetics, household goods, and other soft goods lend themselves to this type of business.'

http://www.sba.gov/content/businesses-eligible-ineligible-sba-assistance

David Brear (copyright 2012)

Faith Vs. Truth

By Shyam Sundar, Journalist

W

e are all truth seekers. The problem arises when someone says that what he/she believes is truth. If a person says that he has faith in something, there is nothing wrong in it. It is his right. But when the same person insists that his faith is truth, it is the hurdle. And it turns out to be a bigger hurdle, if the person says that everyone should follow only his/her faith. Again it becomes the biggest hurdle, if the person is ready to kill or get killed for his/her faith.

No two persons think alike. One has to live in this world with diverse faiths and one need not quarrel with others over it. Let there be diversified thoughts but not animosity. The world has seen enough animosity.

Many people believe, rather wrongly, that faith in god makes people morally binding. But one has to accept the reality that people are more afraid of the law of the land than god. They become good citizens due to the fear of the long hands of the law. Theists strongly believe that god can be appeased and even bribed. Once they bribe the god they start afresh all types of anti-social activities. But they keep an eye on the police.

Broadly speaking there are two types of believers – one who believes in god rather innocently or out of ignorance and the other who is cunning and out to hoodwink people in the name of god.

The world is full of innocent and gullible people. They are easily tricked into believe anything. If someone says that a particular godman has mystical powers, they run to him and pay obeisance before him. They strongly believe that the godman would relieve them from the re-birth cycle and send them to heaven. They are ready to believe whatever they say and also ready to extend donations to the godman. That is the weakest link and godmen make money. The faith in these godmen is so strong that the believers refuse to accept een there were ghastly incidents occurred in their presence. A Karnataka-based swami, it is learnt, has been extending loans to his devotees at an exorbitant rate of interest. But his popularity is not dwindling. Recently, to continue the legacy, he appointed his nephew as his successor.

One thing the devotees do not care to think is that these godmen or godwomen have renounced the world and amass enormous wealth, which is contradictory . they renounced the world and they lead luxurious lives. They live in air-conditioned houses and move around in air-conditioned cars. Hypocrites.

The other day a person of a particular faith approached and tried to convince me that his faith is superior over all other faiths. He even quoted scriptures. It seems he strongly believed that after his lengthy discourse I would change my ideas of atheism and ecome a religious man.

After patiently hearing his soliloquy for many hours, I simply put forward two questions. One, his omnipotent god, using his powers, should make all his believers of various hues in his own faith unite and embrace each other. Or at least as a second option, his omni benevolent god should bestow his largesse upon all his believers and see there is no poverty among his believers. I made it clear that I do not want anything but the poverty-ridden people should get uplifted. My good friend never met me again. I only called on him after some days and asked him why he was not visiting me. He said that he approached his religious head with the questions posed by me and the religious head warned him not to talk to me as there was every danger of his becoming an atheist.

That is the way the believers avoid meeting people of different ideas, in particular atheists. In earlier days, the atheists were not given a chance to express their opinions and most of the atheists or rationalists were killed or tortured into silence. Ut thanks to the efforts of people like Gora, now we can talk openly about atheism and even organise world atheists meet.

During one of visits to Surat in Gujarat, I was introduced to a swami as an atheist. The swami was so confident that he said that I would become a theist if I talked with him for ten minutes. I readily accepted the offer. He started his questions. The earth rotates around Sun, is that right, he asked. I said, yes. Then what is the force that is working there? I said gravitational force. Then he asked that it is believed that no force worked in the space is that right? I sensed the trap. If I say I do not know what force is working to make the earth rotate around the Sun, he would say that it is god.

I told him that there are several forces outside in the universe. If you call it ‘a force’, it would become ‘the force’. “The basic question is whether the humans have freedom or not?” I asked him. Suddenly he was dumbfound. He hurriedly went away stating that we could talk later. Naturally he never met me again. If he agrees that humans have freedom, he should also agree that there is no god. And how can he say that humans have no freedom. Humans have freedom to do whatever they want subject to the approval by the society he himself has created.

Though I quote George Bernard Shaw who said it is a superstition if you believe you can eradicate all the superstitions, I attack the superstitious beliefs many a time. It is said that one man’s religion is another man’s superstition. It can safely be said that all religions are superstitious beliefs.

The latest superstitious belief that has been harassing people all over India is ‘vaastu’ which exactly means the art of house construction. But there is more demolition than construction in vaastu. It easily frightens people into submission. If you do not follow this rule, something will happen to your children, you will become pauper, you will incur loss in your business, and you will lose all your money. These are only some of the threats. There are more and more ridiculous threats.

My simple question to the believers is what their goal is. If salvation is their goal, they are welcome die and meet their `creator’.  Our goal is better life on earth for all humans.

When I say better life for all humans, there comes another section that demands better life for all creatures. My humble answer is let them leave lions and tigers among humans and let them live. If there is a threat to their existence, humans do not mind to kill whether is wild animals or even flies and mosquitoes. Ultimately the humans always think in their perspective only. That is why Gora (Mr Goparaju Ramachandra Rao, who is the pioneer of modern atheist movement in India and author of several books including "Positive Atheism') coined the slogan ‘Jai Insaan” (Long live humans). Atheists are not out to criticise any religion or ‘holy book’. They are out to prove that humans can live without believing in any supernatural power. And we are proving the point.

(This article was published in the souvenir of Sixth World Atheist Conference 2007)