God did NOT create the Universe (per Stephen Hawking)

[Bobtheicon]

This might get interesting. Thought provoking at the very least...


God did not create the universe, says Hawking - Yahoo! News
LONDON (Reuters) – God did not create the universe and the "Big Bang" was an inevitable consequence of the laws of physics, the eminent British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking argues in a new book.

In "The Grand Design," co-authored with U.S. physicist Leonard Mlodinow, Hawking says a new series of theories made a creator of the universe redundant, according to the Times newspaper which published extracts on Thursday.

"Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist," Hawking writes.

"It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going."

Hawking, 68, who won global recognition with his 1988 book "A Brief History of Time," an account of the origins of the universe, is renowned for his work on black holes, cosmology and quantum gravity.

Since 1974, the scientist has worked on marrying the two cornerstones of modern physics -- Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, which concerns gravity and large-scale phenomena, and quantum theory, which covers subatomic particles.

His latest comments suggest he has broken away from previous views he has expressed on religion. Previously, he wrote that the laws of physics meant it was simply not necessary to believe that God had intervened in the Big Bang.

He wrote in A Brief History ... "If we discover a complete theory, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason -- for then we should know the mind of God."

In his latest book, he said the 1992 discovery of a planet orbiting another star other than the Sun helped deconstruct the view of the father of physics Isaac Newton that the universe could not have arisen out of chaos but was created by God.

"That makes the coincidences of our planetary conditions -- the single Sun, the lucky combination of Earth-Sun distance and solar mass, far less remarkable, and far less compelling evidence that the Earth was carefully designed just to please us human beings," he writes.

Hawking, who is only able to speak through a computer-generated voice synthesizer, has a neuro muscular dystrophy that has progressed over the years and left him almost completely paralyzed.

He began suffering the disease in his early 20s but went on to establish himself as one of the world's leading scientific authorities, and has also made guest appearances in "Star Trek" and the cartoons "Futurama" and "The Simpsons."

Last year he announced he was stepping down as Cambridge University's Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, a position once held by Newton and one he had held since 1979.

"The Grand Design" is due to go on sale next week.

[Davydave]

Big fan... and agnostic

[QuadzillaXXX]

stephen hawking created the universe

[dhunter]

duh

[be47320]

you mean theres not a man in the sky constantly fuking with us?

[Mendoza Line]

Nice to see him start to fall in line with most of his contemporaries, but it sure is a convenient time to have these headlines coming out with his new book about to release. Sort of like a theoretical physicist's equivalent of an actress' sex tape.

[MR.FUGI]

He's been on the simpsons and futurama...big fu**in deal...When Seth McFarlane features this quack in a family guy episode then and only then I will listen to his ramblings...

[ptotheb]

The fact that there is a logical reason for how the Earth and the Universe came to be doesn't mean that there isn't an afterlife and some higher power. It just means that we lack the sophistication to understand and articulate this higher power- God, Allah, the boogie man, those are just our projections. The fact that our projections and interpretation of this higher power and the afterlife (heaven, etc.) doesn't jive with the things we have come to know about this world reflects solely on our competence. If we ever knew definitively that there was a higher power, that would destroy the need for faith.

[snapdad]

Some of the user comments on the yahoo page are hilarious:



"wow a guy in a wheelchair angry at God? who woulda thunkit?"

"He will be dragged into hell and then he will be begging to God for mercy for what he said now."

"this idiot sure do look like satan that's why he doesn't believe that there is a God. God, please forgive him as he doesn't know what he is saying.. amen...."

"Did it ever occur to you atheist freaks that maybe you're too stupid to understand the universe? It's easier to just say a hawking guy did it with IQ."

"Be forewarned.....God will not be mocked!"

[Romanowski]

bill maher is smilin somehwere

dumb hippies

[Romanowski]

Originally Posted by ptotheb

The fact that there is a logical reason for how the Earth and the Universe came to be doesn't mean that there isn't an afterlife and some higher power. It just means that we lack the sophistication to understand and articulate this higher power- God, Allah, the boogie man, those are just our projections. The fact that our projections and interpretation of this higher power and the afterlife (heaven, etc.) doesn't jive with the things we have come to know about this world reflects solely on our competence. If we ever knew definitively that there was a higher power, that would destroy the need for faith.

on a serious note this is an excellent post

[QuadzillaXXX]

Originally Posted by snapdad

Some of the user comments on the yahoo page are hilarious:



"wow a guy in a wheelchair angry at God? who woulda thunkit?"

"He will be dragged into hell and then he will be begging to God for mercy for what he said now."

"this idiot sure do look like satan that's why he doesn't believe that there is a God. God, please forgive him as he doesn't know what he is saying.. amen...."

"Did it ever occur to you atheist freaks that maybe you're too stupid to understand the universe? It's easier to just say a hawking guy did it with IQ."

"Be forewarned.....God will not be mocked!"

very christian lol

[guzzi]

hear me rorr...

[Bisket]

the human brain isn't capable of understanding how everything came to be

[bigsportsguy2006]

Originally Posted by ptotheb

The fact that there is a logical reason for how the Earth and the Universe came to be doesn't mean that there isn't an afterlife and some higher power. It just means that we lack the sophistication to understand and articulate this higher power- God, Allah, the boogie man, those are just our projections. The fact that our projections and interpretation of this higher power and the afterlife (heaven, etc.) doesn't jive with the things we have come to know about this world reflects solely on our competence. If we ever knew definitively that there was a higher power, that would destroy the need for faith.

great post