With a Boson being found that is probably the elusive Higgs Boson, the standard model of particle physics is virtually complete. We now have quantum particles that can randomly come in and out of existence that explain everything in the universe. Some, like physicist Lawrence Krause, think that this makes belief in a god  unnecessary:

Assuming the particle in question is indeed the Higgs, it validates an unprecedented revolution in our understanding of fundamental physics and brings science closer to dispensing with the need for any supernatural shenanigans all the way back to the beginning of the universe—and perhaps even before the beginning, if there was a before… The Higgs particle is now arguably more relevant than God.

While he’s right, god(s) hasn’t been relevant for quite some time.

My theology professors would caution us against adopting a god of the gaps theology, since each new scientific discovery would make God that much smaller and when you’re starting with a personal god, especially with a monistic (as in non-dualistic) world-view, there’s a great risk that like Krause has pointed out, god becomes irrelevant when that next gap is closed. The way to protect against that is to stick with a view of god that hasn’t been relevant since the Enlightenment. Yes, it’s ironic that you avoid irrelevance by embracing it full force, but that’s how they do it.

There’s also the deistic god and the pantheistic god. The deistic creator is the one who wrote the laws of physics in the first place and could now just be tweaked from the blind watchmaker of old, to one who creates things continuously through quantum processes. Then there’s the pantheistic (and panentheistic) god that could just be defined by it’s proponents as being the Higgs field.  Of course their gods are too distant or too abstract to have ever been relevant.

The completion of the standard model definitely helps with better explaining how something came from nothing and this will reach a few people. It could eliminate the need some people feel for the explanatory power of a creator. For the rest, it’ll just be one more thing to ignore or personify. No, science can’t kill God.