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Let's raise a glass to Stephen Hawking, everyone!

120 replies

SolidGoldBrass · 03/09/2010 14:31

I have admired him for ages anyway but he's just gone even further up in my estimation for not being afraid to point out once and for all the absurdity of belief in gods.

And may it settle all the silly imaginary-friend followers whose last ditch argument is 'Clever people than you rotten rationalists believe in my imaginary friend, so ner!'. Oh go on, just try to argue that you're smarter then Stephen Hawking...

OP posts:
LordPanofthePeaks · 03/09/2010 23:01

SH is the equivalent of the labelling of Bruce Springsteen as the "Marks and Spencer of Rock and Roll"....

Roobie · 03/09/2010 23:08

Hawking said: ?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.?

IMO the above makes no sense at all. Who made the laws of gravity and physics? It still leads to the notion of there being an uncaused cause at the start of everything.

UnquietDad · 03/09/2010 23:11

The universe is amazing and god is unnecessary. More eminent scientists need to come out and say it. And the term "militant atheism" is invented bollocks. And please, his name is Stephen Hawking, not "Hawkins" or "Hawkings". So many people get this wrong...

Pan · 03/09/2010 23:17

Why do more eminent scientists need to come out and say the same thing? Do you mean more rather than quantity? And the notion of god being unnecessary and the universe being 'amazing' are entirely unconnected, but aligned in some way according to your statement.

and hello to you, UD.Smile

Pan · 03/09/2010 23:19

and a big WOW to techie for changing my name back about 45 mins after my request!!

Jux · 03/09/2010 23:20

That quote "for then we should know the mind of God" - isn't that Hawking quoting Einstein? I don't think it has any relevance to Hawking's own beliefs, so he's not changed his mind.

(sorry has this been said already? can't find it in the thread)

UnquietDad · 04/09/2010 00:31

I don't mean "more eminent". I mean more in number. But you're right, they don't have to. It would just be interesting if they did, so that it wasn't so easy for people to bash the usual suspects all the time...

The wonders of the universe can be enjoyed without needing to imagine a "creator", is what I mean. It's unnecessary in that sense. Rather like that Douglas Adams quote about a garden being beautiful in its own right without our needing to imagine fairies at the bottom.

seeker · 04/09/2010 06:34

I'll raise several glasses to anyone who stands up for the Enlightenment.

Flighttattendant · 04/09/2010 11:21

I don't know what 'the enlightenment' is.

But I do know Stephen Hawking is just a bloke and that means he can get stuff wrong.

Eleison · 04/09/2010 11:26

He also said that philosophy is dead, which is plainly daft.

claig · 04/09/2010 12:07

did he really say that philosophy is dead? Wow, he is even more stupid than I thought. He might be good at equations, but his metaphysical and philosphical expertise is laughable. He's obviously a sci-fi enthusiast and has been watching too many 1950s B-movies about nasty aliens invading planet earth in massive spaceships.

'I imagine they might exist in massive ships, having used up all the resources from their home planet.

'Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonise whatever planets they can reach.'

I think he should stick to calculations and not pronounce on matters way above his head.

earthworm · 04/09/2010 13:34

If only the world religions would take that advice claig : stick to what they do best rather than getting in the way of scientific progress.

seeker · 04/09/2010 14:43

"I don't know what 'the enlightenment' is."

I rest my case.

claig · 04/09/2010 16:35

Voltaire was one of the key figures of the enlightenment, and is a figure who would frankly put Hawking in the shade, with his belief in aliens in spaceships. Voltaire must be turning in his grave to see our "greatest" scientist saying that philosophy is dead. He must be wondering where the Enlightenment went wrong and if we are now entering a new dark age, with an equation solver telling us that God is redundant and philosophy is dead.

"Like other key thinkers during the European Enlightenment, Voltaire considered himself a deist, expressing the idea: "What is faith? Is it to believe that which is evident? No. It is perfectly evident to my mind that there exists a necessary, eternal, supreme, and intelligent being. This is no matter of faith, but of reason."

claig · 04/09/2010 16:37

Enlightenment

Flighttattendant · 04/09/2010 16:54

Well if nobody is going to explain what it is to me I shall never know, shall I.

It's like saying 'Nobody ever stands up for the secrets of the Masonic lodge'

when nobody knows what they bloody well are either.

claig · 04/09/2010 16:58

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Enlightenment

Flighttattendant · 04/09/2010 16:59

Thanks Claig.

Flighttattendant · 04/09/2010 17:01

Gawd I'm not reading all that Grin

LynetteScavo · 04/09/2010 17:08

I have no idea if there is a god or not.

I do know that some people need to believe in a higher being/god/alah/whatever.

And it brings them great comfort. And it brings people comfort t to believe in an after life/reincarnation/whatever.

Why be a kill-joy?

claig · 04/09/2010 17:16

"Why be a kill-joy?"
Very good question. Could it be that they are kill-joys because they fear that they may be wrong and that they may be missing out on something, so they want us all to be in the same boat as them.

earthworm · 04/09/2010 17:51

You are right Lynette, and if the faithful retreated to a position of private faith then I would not feel compelled to publicly disagree with their books-of-stories.

As it is, it permeates all walks of life and insists on hindering scientific progress.

It is a shame that the church gave up its thirst for genuine knowledge when it starting unearthing facts that made it uncomfortable.

I can't think of a single scientific subject that can be enhanced by religion, but there are rather a lot of religious concepts that can be disproved with science.

JoanneOfArk · 04/09/2010 22:40

This is quite simple really.

Hawking has a book of complex science that few of its purchasers will even begin to understand, and his publishers realised that if he appends 'God is dead' to it, it would sell far more copies.

Hawking was an atheist in 1989 when he published 'A Brief History of Time', and he is still an atheist today. The only difference was that then there was seen to be sales in saying you could 'know the mind of God', and now, post-Dawkins, post-Hitchens, it's clear that it's better for sales to say that God does not exist.

The Big Bang theory was devised by a Catholic priest, in the face of at aheist objection from those who disliked the idea of a 'in the beginning'. Hawking was always an atheist, so it's not as if he was previously a believer who suddenly realised that physics proved God does not exist - he's just out to sell books, and good luck to him, but don't imagine that there's any great ontological revelation in this book.

JoanneOfArk · 04/09/2010 22:41

'of atheist objection'

ivykaty44 · 04/09/2010 23:52

I have no idea if I am missing out as I don't even know what there would be to be missing out on - is it that I am missing out on belieivng or is it that I am missing a soemthing

Why would it bother you if I was a kill joy and what would I be being a kill joy about when I don't even know about believing. how would I even know that I may be wrong of I don't know about not beleiving as it isn't something I do

Very good question. Could it be that they are kill-joys because they fear that they may be wrong and that they may be missing out on something, so they want us all to be in the same boat as them