Hawking Picks Physics Over God For Big Bang

Hugh Pickens writes "The Guardian reports that in his new book, The Grand Design, Professor Stephen Hawking argues that the Big Bang, rather than occurring following the intervention of a divine being, was inevitable due to the law of gravity. '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.' Hawking had previously appeared to accept the role of God in the creation of the universe. Writing in his bestseller A Brief History Of Time in 1988, Hawking wrote: 'If we discover a complete theory, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason – for then we should know the mind of God.'"

Comments

Re:But what created the law of gravity?

[tercero12]

Well who created the all-mighty then?

You're missing the point...the Almighty is not created. He is not physical. I good philosophical book to read is "I Don't Have Faith Enough to be an Atheist". Take a look.

Re:But what created the law of gravity?

[digitig]

I'm not sure what you mean by the law of gravity not being "physical", but I'm pretty sure it's not addressed in "The God Delusion". The God Delusion is very lightweight anyway. Those who agree with it get carried away by the polemic, but there's hardly any substance. If you want good arguments for atheism you need to read people like William Rowe. Most people don't, though, because they'd have to think -- something most atheists turn out to be as averse to as most religionists. Almost everybody on both sides prefers slogans and polemic.