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Pope Advised Hawking Not to Study Origin of Universe

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the chewbacca-defense dept.

BlueCup submits a link to an Associated Press article running in the Northwest Florida Daily News which begins "Famous astrophysicist Stephen Hawking said Thursday that the late Pope John Paul II once told scientists they should not study the beginning of the universe because it was the work of God. The British author, who wrote the best-seller 'A Brief History of Time,' said that the pope made the comments at a cosmology conference at the Vatican." According to the article, "The scientist then joked during a lecture in Hong Kong, 'I was glad he didn't realize I had presented a paper at the conference suggesting how the universe began. I didn't fancy the thought of being handed over to the Inquisition like Galileo.'"

3 of 864 comments (clear)

  1. Flawed Logic by mfh · · Score: 5, Interesting

    If you love God, why not read up on his work?

    --
    The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
  2. Re:Nevertheless, it inflates by Jboost · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Well, Pope Pius XII approved of the Big Bang theory in 1951 and Pope John Paul II said "that it is acceptable for Catholics to believe and teach evolutionism."

    The Vatican also has some fine astronomers (and one of the oldest astronomical research institutions).
    http://vaticanobservatory.org/

    The Vatican isn't as backwards as those fundamental christian creationists that take everything the bible says literally.

  3. reminds me of another story... by Marsmensch · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I heard this same anecdote from Hawking himself when he visited Chile a few years ago.

    I'm reminded of a story Carl Sagan used to tell. He once asked the pope (John Paul II, of course) what he would do if some scientific discovery proved once and for all and irrefutably that the precepts of Christianity were false. The pope lectured him for a few minutes about how this wasn't possible.

    Sagan once asked the Dalai Lama the exact same thing. The Lama's answer?

    "I would tell the world, of course! There are millions of buddhists in the world and if I find out their all wrong, I should tell them as soon as possible, and we should look for a better way to live then.

    Very different mindset.

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