Posted on 03/17/2018 6:16:06 PM PDT by pcottraux
I thought that as a Christian, that was very charitably written. I admit I was surprised by the degree of vitriol against God that came from Stephen Hawking as he aged, but in retrospect I am trying hard not to judge him and will leave that to God.
I guess Stephen Hawking was given a burden he couldn’t reconcile with God.
Had Hawking not worked the celebrity of his wheelchair he would have been fortunate to be a physics instructor at a community college.
Thank you for pointing me to these Five Proofs. Profound.
I’m sorry that Hawking was an atheist. I hope that he came to know Him before his death but that’s not always going to happen. A friend of mine who was in her 80s loaned me a book of hers from the 1880’s. These were stories of people’s death bed conversions (or not) recorded by caregivers, family members, or clergy. I was surprised by how many people who were on the verge of death who rejected God all of their lives and finally at their impending death wanted to convert but could not. Their cries of anguish were heart rending. Whenever I read about quenching the Spirit and its consequences it is chilling. There by the utter grace of God go I.
Isaiah 63:10 New International Version (NIV)
10 Yet they rebelled
and grieved his Holy Spirit.
So he turned and became their enemy
and he himself fought against them.
I’ve only come to know God in the last 14 years, but I could have been one of the lost ones. When we hear the call of God we must respond. We might not have another opportunity.
There are hypothesis, but no working theories. For a theory you need evidence, and there is none. According to the standard model, there was no space or time prior to the Big Bang (which also means there was no ‘prior’). Quantum fluctuations take place in space-time, so what created space-time itself? But there are those who say space-time has always existed at least on the Planck scale, or it oscillates between expansion and collapse infinitely, etc; or it was a collision between two higher-dimensional universes. Or with just as much validity you could say God created it. With no observational evidence, science can make no absolute claims.
Where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? (I Corinthians 1:20)
Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools (Romans 1:22)
Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. (II Timothy 3:7)
A scoffer seeks wisdom and finds none, But knowledge is easy to one who has understanding. (Proverbs 14:6)
Sadly, yes, Hawking does finally know the truth but it was probably too late.
Sadly, we all will some day, one way or another.
On the other hand, somehow I can still see devout atheists in hell as the eternal ages roll with their hands over their eyes going "This isn't happening right now! God still doesn't exist! There's no afterlife! I'm not actually here!"
Reminds me of Bertrand Russell's infamous "question for God" once he died. He claimed that if that were the case, he would ask "Why not more evidence, God?"
A perfect retort from God would be "My dear Russell, at what point is enough evidence presented to convince someone determined not to believe?"
Very true.
In an ideal world. Hawking's problem is similar to that of other atheists like Sam Harris or Richard Dawkins. That they know a lot about their respective fields (neurology and zoology) I don't doubt. The problem is that when one "feels like" a genius who's ahead of their time, they tend to assume themselves as an expert on everything. When Harris or Dawkins attack religion on theological grounds, the emperor has no clothes. They don't even see how embarrassingly ignorant they are on the subject. I hope I come across with more self-awareness in my writing.
I guess he didn’t learn from Einstein’s attempt.
In the comments section on the blog, another poster gave more examples of quantum physicists creating absurd realities that sound like plots from bad sci-fi novels to get around the evidence of a God-created universe (specifically he brings up the "infinite multi-verses" theory).
I'm sure there's some science nerd on the internet somewhere that can explain it in a long, drawn-out way with lots of unintelligible scientific-sounding babble.
Exactly so, just as when theologians weigh in on scientific matters.
Also known as the teleological, or "fine-tuning" argument. You can look at the universe as a gigantic slow-motion explosion still in progress, or as a complex machine with intricate parts that are interdependent on one another. And as the Hawking example I gave indicates, the evidence for the latter is much stronger.
Well personally, I’m fascinated by science as an amateur but don’t consider myself an expert by any stretch of the imagination. So I make sure to research something thoroughly and quote my sources, trying to act more as a reporter than a self-proclaimed genius.
Agreed. All explanations are hypotheses at this point.
Maybe, but I don't think it was accepted as scientific fact until about a century ago. I mean, actually seeing the evidence made it more or less indisputable.
Thank you! I’m planning on sharing these blogs on FR every week now (they get uploaded Saturday nights)...I’ll start getting together a ping list if you’re interested.
Hawking’s survival with his condition as long he did was itself a miracle, yet he totally rejected the existence of the miraculous. Sad but just how some people just see the world.
Well-put. I call it "presuming philosophical naturalism," but yours is a bit more to-the-point lol.
“finally at their impending death wanted to convert but could not.”
I have not heard of that before. Why would Got not allow them to convert? Is it because they wanted to convert only to avoid hell, not out of love for God?
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