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Albert Eienstein, belief, belief in God, Curiosity, Discovery Channel, Douglas Adams, God, Stephen Hawking
I find it amusing that the Discovery channel introduced a new series called “Curiosity” by asking the big question of Life, the Universe, and Everything. Douglas Adams would have been proud.
I know you’ve been waiting with bated breath for the answer, so I won’t make you suffer any longer. Did God create the universe, and did the universe need a creator? Stephen Hawking says no.
Are you surprised? I’m not. Hawking explains away the need for a creator because, according to the laws of nature, a universe can pop into existence without causation. According to his science, time didn’t exist before the big bang, ergo there was nothing, no God, no thing, no Thing. There wasn’t.
He believes this is so because the laws of nature are incontrovertible. In other words, the law of natures are firm and cannot be changed. That’s a fact.
Here’s another fact. Science is unable to explain some things. What is the source of these immutable laws? Where do the laws of physics come from? Scientists don’t know. Why did the universe pop into existence? Again, scientists don’t know.
Hawking gave a perfect example of a question that can’t be answered: “Where is the edge of the world?” It’s not that the question can’t be answered. It’s the wrong question.
That doesn’t mean there’s no room for science. Religion and theology ask the question of why, not how. Science answers as many questions as it can about the ultimate physical nature of reality. But religion – my version of religion, anyway – isn’t concerned with that. Whether or not God is the Creator is the wrong question.
There are far more important, more meaningful questions. Why? For what purpose? And what is my role?
Hawking ended the hour by saying that there is no heaven or hell, and that he’s very grateful for that. It makes me sad that a man who has spent decades trapped in a body that can’t move, isn’t able to conceive of an afterlife in which he is finally freed. For his sake, I hope he’s wrong.
Thanks for the insightful post! As an agnostic, I’m starting to realize that science will probably never be able to fully explain the vastness of God and the universe, but it is fun to think about. I agree fully with Ronni Blumenthal’s comment above. There is still so much to learn and it great to open up new theories for the sake of evolution, but spiritual evolution is something on a whole other level that quantum physics has barely scratched the surface of. Thank you again — Mrs. D.
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Sadly enough, I know a few students who lost their belief in God’s creative power because of the “wisdom” of views shared by Stephen Hawking, including my own brother. He read one Hawking’s works and decided to give up his faith and become an agnostic. Thanks for sharing.
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Quantum Physics increases my belief in something bigger, incomprehensible, and more wonderous than what we are capable of understanding. I love science but am always amazed at how each generation sees itself as “knowing” in such absolute terms. We knew the world was flat once, too. Ask Galileo how countering that idea worked out for him. We also know that we only use a fraction of our brains, yet we are so convinced of our incredible intelligence. We’re so silly sometimes.
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Amen, brother!
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While there is but one God, there are many physicists!
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