The Universe: No God required.
If this opinion came from the Pope, then we'd have a major scoop on our hands. Alas, it didn't.
Stephen Hawking, British physicist (and, apparently, troublemaker) makes this statement in his new book, The Grand Design, that went on shelves on Thursday. Needless to say, it has taken the media by storm.
ANALYSIS: Stephen Hawking's Time Machine
In the book -- with the quasi-religious title, you may have noticed -- Hawking says that he doesn't believe a God lit "the blue touch paper and set the Universe going." The Universe formed from "nothing" and we need only physics to describe what really happened 13.75 billion years ago.
"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," he writes.
The UK's Times website (subscription only) is serializing Hawking's book, and they obviously thought the news was groundbreaking. "Hawking: God did not create universe" was the headline.
To put it bluntly, so what? Is this sentiment really a surprise considering Hawking evaporates black holes for a living? Also, he is definitely not the first scientist to come forward with this standpoint on universal creation.
For example, I can think of Einstein's famous "God does not play dice" quip in response to his disbelief of Max Born's work on quantum theory in 1926. If I were to take this literally, I'd assume Einstein thought God was immune to gambling problems. But no, Einstein didn't subscribe to the religious interpretation of God creating the universe -- he would often use a metaphorical "God" to communicate physics on the cutting edge.
Invoking God as an analogy to complex scientific theories seems to be all the rage. But Hawking points out that our theories about the Big Bang are becoming so complex, we don't need to imagine a supernatural being at all.
Hawking is entitled to his views, and perhaps the media has blown it out of proportion, but this is only the latest grand statement Hawking has made to ignite a media frenzy.
Recently, the physicist warned against sending signals to extraterrestrials in case they aren't friendly. Again, this is nothing new (think "Mars Attacks"), but when the world's most recognized and respected scientist says we might become alien fodder if we end up sending a message to The Borg, people tend to listen.
In this most recent saga, religious figures are taking it personally, saying physicists can't disprove the existence of God, so this is a non-debate. He's even being accused of having an Atheist agenda. But primarily, Hawking is being interpreted as vocalizing the point that religion has no place in a scientific field.
Personally, I totally agree with Stephen's point of view. It's far more fascinating to think the Big Bang is purely a consequence of physics with no supernatural being influencing its creation. Alas, the human brain tends to rationalize extremely complex cosmological events as being proof that only "a God" could have done it.
Unfortunately, rather than avoiding the whole religion vs. science thing, Hawking has decided to open a can of worms reigniting an age-old debate that would make Richard Dawkins proud. This is great for publicity, but it's a tactic that makes Hawking look as if he's prodding a hornet's nest in the hope of getting a fiery response.
What's more, it looks like it worked. Well played Stephen, well played.
Tags: Cosmology, Humor, Space People
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