Hmmm.... well, this is a particularly tough one since even the theoretical physicists don't know what they're talking about here. But I'll give it a try:
1). Particle physicists have been searching for mechanisms whereby the fundamental forces of the Universe ultimately relate to one another [the forces being Gravity, Electromagnetism, the Weak Nuclear Force which causes certain transmutations and radioactive decay, and the Strong Nuclear Force which binds nuclei together]. They've found the "signatures" of force-carrying particles in the remnants of "atom-smashing" particle accelerator results, and feel that the glimpses of these short-lasting particles indicate that they can be "joined" [in a sense] or melded into "the same" particle at high enough energy densities --- in other words: as you go back to the energy dense state of the very early Universe, all these force-carriers become alike --- or, those forces become the same --- or, we are on the way to understanding a unifying theory of everything that exists [The TOE, Theory of Everything; I'm not kidding you guys, this is the lingo used].
2). The big hang-up has been that the force carrier for Gravity never shows up. So no TOE. To attempt to get Gravity to behave, the theoreticians have modeled a prime target "most wanted subatomic shadowmaster" to be the agent which takes the uber-hot energy soup of the earliest Universe, and forces areas of that chaos to "pause" and mass-ify ... i.e. to become "particles" out of the chaotic energy. Without this massification of the energy soup, no particles form, therefore no atoms, no molecules, no "dust", no stars nor [later] planets, no supernovas, no heavy element systems, no complex molecules, no life, no sex, no plants and animals, no "us". So yes, in a crude way, it is the "God Particle" for without it the Universe forever fails in diversification and "interest". They call this theoretical idea, The Higgs Boson.
3). Empirical physicists, the ones who actually do the experiments, have tried left, right, and center to find the Higgs --- occasionally claiming success, but in the end always failing. The theorists then go back to the desks and begin to rationalize why the experimenters didn't find it last time. They then typically set the "Energy Bar" a little higher --- i.e., you guys didn't quite generate enough KASPLASH!!! in your last particle smashup but if you could just get to "this" level you'd probably see the Higgs [briefly]. So more and more monster particle accelerators and monster experiments are jacked up to squeeze a Higgs out of the conflagration, or mini-Big Bang. So, hey! This time they say [again] that they found it. Who knows? Maybe they did.
4). What's the point then? The atheist physicists want the next particle theory synthesis so that they can claim that there is no God. Of course discovering the Higgs does no such thing, but that is how it will be spun, when the scientists stop being scientists and begin acting like biased bull-sh!tters. Certain religious scientists will say: see! That's how God did it! What a neat solution to the Mass problem --- worthy of a deity. Of course the Higgs discovery will prove none of that either. TOE theorists will try to shoehorn this new discovery into some version of a TOE ... and they'll fail. They'll fail because no matter how many particles you toss into a TOE, they will not handle Quantum Mechanics and the "Observation collapses the Wave Function" problem. That last refers to the need for "something" to happen to get "non-determinant [i.e. maybe this/ maybe that 'freedom of possibilities'] chaotic states to "collapse" into something [ex. a massive thing like an electron]. What does it take to make "chaos" collapse? Or in terms discussed here: what makes the Higgs show up and DO anything?
5). The quantum physicists say "observation" of an uncollapsed situation collapses it. Risk-taking physicists say: you'll never get a TOE until you get conscious observership involved alongside your particle force-carriers. The most intelligent man of the 20th century [rated so by his peers over Einstein, for instance], John von Neumann, said it simply: First there was nothing but Chaos and GOD. GOD IS The Prime Observer. GOD observed and Chaos "collapsed" [in our terms, The Higgs formed], and BIG BANG here comes the Universe.
Johnny von Neumann was a Catholic and a Hungarian refugee escaping Hitler to our country. He and his ideas would have been most welcome at Notre Dame, but the Pentagon grabbed him.
