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." Read more here.
Er, atheist though I am, there seems to be a slight problem with this, right?
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." Read more here.
Er, atheist though I am, there seems to be a slight problem with this, right?
Comments
What a sell-out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ImvlS8PLIo
I don't get it either, but maybe the book will explain it. Mlodinow is an excellent science writer with the ability to clarify complex issues so that even I can understand.
By way of clarification of his blue touch-paper comment (an incendiary statement?) he is quoted as saying
"If you like, you can call the laws of science 'God', but it wouldn't be a personal God that you could meet, and ask questions."
Anyway it makes a change from the Tony Blair book.
What would that be?
It explains the existence of the universe from the laws of physics. Which are something, not nothing.
The more fundamental question is 'why is there something instead of nothing?' To that, Hawking has no reply, and nor do the theists. We will likely never know the answer - unless, as Victor Stenger claims, there are just two fundamental rules: (1) Everything happens unless it is expressly forbidden, and (2) Nothing is forbidden.
Incidentally, is there a way for theists to rescue the argument from first cause, or is it certainly a failure in any form? I'm thinking of arguments like 'reason needs a reasoning cause and only God is eternal and reasoning', etc. Would like to hear others' thoughts.
Gif
So doesn't this just go back to the old "what happened before the start of everything?" Which Hawking answered in his first book - (there wasn't a "before")
which seemed to leave the question but "OK but why this specific improbably hospitable Universe?". Now it seems he's attempting to put forward the case that it isn't anything special, its just the one we inhabit. So no need for any agent to set the parameters.
I suppose the implication is that the maths, when we understand it, is self explanatory.
In the Blair autobiography it probably goes
"Well when I spoke to God it seems He'd been thinking along the same lines as me on this, but had a few misgivings, so I said `Trust me on this.' - and he just went ahead and did it."
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2010/09/02/stephen-hawking-settles-the-god-question-once-and-for-all/
Blair - Reckon so - he seems to have homes all over the shop now. The one who works as a Peace Envoy in the Middle East, does a lot of public speaking, and is patron of Tony Blair faith foundation
If you look at zero you see nothing but look through it and you will see the world.
Robert Kaplan
Hawking by evoking the laws of physics to explain where the universe came from just invokes the problem of infinite regress. Where did the laws of physics come from? They have it all backwards materialism is a cul-de-sac that leads to a dead end.
Scientists are not separate from their experiments, the experimenter effect has been known about for a long time.
The act of observation plays an integral role because without consciousness nothing would be here.
If the body came into being because of consciousness that is a wonder, but if consciousness came in to being because of the body this is a wonder of wonders.
Jesus The Gnostic Christ
Hawking also said that philosophy is in danger of becoming a 'trivial word game'. He's listened to because he's a world famous celebrity with his own TV series. I'm not aware of any philosophers with such status. Hawking is winning the battle.