Stephen Hawking: God did not create Universe (BBC)
There is no place for God in theories on the creation of the Universe, Professor Stephen Hawking has said.
He had previously argued belief in a creator was not incompatible with science but in a new book, he concludes the Big Bang was an inevitable consequence of the laws of physics.
The Grand Design, part serialised in the Times, says there is no need to invoke God to set the Universe going.
"Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something," he concluded.
'Planetary conditions'
In his new book, an extract of which appears in the Times, Britain's most famous physicist sets out to contest Sir Isaac Newton's belief that the universe must have been designed by God as it could not have sprung out of chaos.
Citing the 1992 discovery of a planet orbiting a star other than our Sun, he said: "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 as evidence that the Earth was carefully designed just to please us human beings."
He adds: "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.
"It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going."
Read the rest here.
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Oh, MAN! Get ready for a FIRESTORM, boys and girls, of discussion, attempted refutation and flame wars which will make the California brush fires look like guttering candles! Any foolish theist who wants to take on Stephen Hawking on a topic like THIS one is invited to try!
Tags: Spontaneous creation, Stephen Hawking, creation, god, universe
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Hugh Kramer on -
"Je n'avais pas besoin de cette hypothèse-là."
-Pierre-Simon Laplace -
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Permalink Reply by Loren Miller on -
No one needs it ... yet how many seem to insist on it.
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Permalink Reply by Kelly M on -
I LOVE IT!!!! Already the Yahoo boards following this article are "lit up" with the deluded on the attack. Poor things, I guess it is kinda hard when you have someone as brilliant as Hawkings telling you that your beliefs have no basis in fact, and that fact most probably goes against everything you ever believed so blindly in. It's getting harder for them to even justify the god of the gaps anymore, and that is about all they had left. Sad thing is, they attack Stephen Hawkings, who has never been interested in anything but the truth, because they are unwilling to consider any truth because of their delusion. Because of their delusion, scientific discovery is slowed down.
There is a good youtube video of Dr. Neil DeGrasse Tyson talking about the "god of the gaps" and how religion historically hinders or even stops scientific discovery. Awesome video. Linked below. Speaks specifically about Al Ghazali pretty much single handedly brought an end to the golden age of enlightenment in places like Baghdad which used to in that time be the scientific center of the universe.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vrpPPV_yPY
Oh this has pissed people off, and I LOVE it!! Well done Stephen, Well done! -
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