Stephen Hawking Says Universe Created from Nothing

mr_3ntropy writes "Speaking to a sold out crowd at the Berkeley Physics Oppenheimer Lecture, Hawking said yesterday that he now believes the universe spontaneously popped into existence from nothing. He said more work is needed to prove this but we have time because 'Eternity is a very long time, especially towards the end.' There is also a Webcast available (Realplayer or Real Alternative required)."

Comments

Does he have any real credibility in physics?

[stratjakt]

Stephen Hawking, despite his celebrity status (which has more to do with his wheelchair than anything else), wasn't taken very seriously by physicists.

In short, they think his information paradox and work on black holes (his lifes work), is a bunch of crap?

You probably saw the same Discovery special about it. So whats the scoop, should I care what he says? Is he more qualified to tell me the nature of the universe than Pat Robertson is?

Not really

[DogDude]

Real scientists don't bother to argue with religious people any more than they'd bother to argue with the guy on the corner talking to a leprechaun. You can't exactly reason or argue or even discuss with people who claim that they talk to invisible, omnipotent, omnipresent beings that live in the sky.

Re:Not in TFA

[Archangel Michael]

"time, a dimension, didn't exist 'before the universe' "

"somebody more fresh elaborate"

Gen 1: In the beginning ...

Funny, how a physicist and someone from 4000 years ago, can say the same thing, and yet one is esteemed and the other is not.

Re:20-25% is significant, however

[2names]

"You can be a "real" scientist and religious."

Of course you can. I mean, somebody has to finish last in the class, right?

Re:Pfft - yeah right.

[impleri]

At the bottom, though, is Siva (or Visnu or Krsna or Durga or Brahman or....).

Re:Try again.

[DM9290]

"No, the religious nut-cases do that. They are the ones you always hear about in the media. You don't hear about the millions of reasonable, open-minded religious people who are capable of realizing that the Bible doesn't actually say how old the earth is and Genesis 1 was meant to be poetic rather than a scientific account of how God created the universe."

So the Bible is false?

Re:God created the Infinite past?

[kd5ujz]

Surley the bible would not screw up on Adams creation.

Genesis 1:26 (King James Version)
King James Version (KJV)
Public Domain

26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

Genesis 2:18-19 (King James Version)
King James Version (KJV)
Public Domain

18And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.

19And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.