[dayglored]

Hawking is a brilliant scientist. He expounded on how science is ever better able to explain the events that followed the Big Bang (how the universe was created).

Yet his comments about "what God was doing before He made the world", while humorous, point to the fact that the closer our scientists get to a description of the Big Bang, the closer they come to concluding that God did it.

IMO, a clear demonstration that advancing scientific understanding of the universe, and belief in the existence of God as the Creator of the Universe, are not only compatible, BUT VERY LIKELY THE SAME THING.

As one trained in Physics, and who has an unshakable belief in God as the Creator, I find Hawking's comments quite interesting and pleasing. Of course, your mileage may vary, depending on your own beliefs...

[DalcoTX]

Why did the headline, to me, read cosmetologist?

[Coyoteman]

Fon Creation Story

In the beginning there was nothing but Nzame. This god is really three: Nzame, Mebere, and Nkwa. It was the Nzame part of the god that created the universe and the earth, and brought life to it. While the three parts of Nzame were admiring this creation, it was decided to create a ruler for the earth. So was created the elephant, the leopard, and the monkey, but it was decided that something better had to be created. Between the three of them they made a new creature in their image, and called him Fam (power), and told him to rule the earth. Before long, Fam grew arrogant, he mistreated the animals and stopped worshipping Nzame. Nzame, angered, brought forth thunder and lightning and destroyed everything that was, except Fam, who had been promised immortality. Nzame, in his three aspects, decided to renew the earth and try again. He applied a new layer of earth to the planet, and a tree grew upon it. The tree dropped seeds which grew into more trees. Leaves that dropped from them into the water became fish, those that dropped on land became animals. The old parched earth still lies below this new one, and if one digs deep enough it can be found in the form of coal. Nzame made a new man, one who would know death, and called him Sekume. Sekume fashioned a woman, Mbongwe, from a tree. These people were made with both Gnoul (body) and Nissim (soul). Nissim gives life to Gnoul. When Gnoul dies, Nissim lives on. They produced many children and prospered.

http://www.gateway-africa.com/stories/"

[Polak z Polski]

You know, in every science, the more those that are learned study their fields, the more their findings support the Bible, rather than detracting from it. This comes as a suprise to some.

[FastCoyote]

I'm trained as a mechanical engineer, into thermodynamics. If you know your thermo, you have to understand that the laws do not in anyway preclude the existence of God, as many claim. As you get into quantum uncertainty, it becomes even more difficult to not believe in a God. That leaves a lot of room for interpretation, but it is certainly a far cry from the academic atheism taught in college.

[mlo]

"...the closer our scientists get to a description of the Big Bang, the closer they come to concluding that God did it."

Uh, no. They don't. And Hawking doesn't conclude that God did it. He's just using colorful language.

[Gene Eric]

>> Yet his comments about "what God was doing before He made the world",

The remark is a conundrum and, if not deliberately farcical, insulting.

[MHGinTN]

Only a supremely arrogant man, or a fool, would look into a region that can have only a faith-based reading (that which preceeded the advent of our spacetime universe) and conclude an explanation other than a statement of faith. Stephen shows his brilliance in choosing a faith-based assertion.

[hosepipe]

[... If one believed that the universe had a beginning, the obvious question was, what happened before the beginning,” Hawking said. “What was God doing before He made the world?" ..]

The question is.. the beginning of WHAT?..
Are there multi-verses and multi-dimensions?..
If you cannot see the entire system what are we trying determine the beginning of?..
The beginning of a part of the system may be the result of something else..

Maybe, determining the beginning of something is so easy a Cosmologist can do it..
Generating bodacious grants and research graft..

[spinestein]

[Last night, nearly 3,000 people received a mini lesson on the origin of the universe from perhaps the world’s most famous cosmologist, Stephen Hawking.

Hawking spoke to a packed audience in Zellerbach Hall about how Albert Einstein’s general theory of relativity and quantum theory explained the creation of the universe.

The event was also simultaneously broadcast to a sold-out Wheeler Auditorium, as well as Webcast live. .....

His appearance was one of the most popular events ever hosted at Zellerbach, with one of the fastest ticket sales and a 400-name waiting list.]



Times have changed. In 1986 my high school physics teacher told the class that he was going to see some scientist in a wheelchair give a lecture at Fermilab on the topic of black holes and that anyone who wanted to come along was welcome. A few of us went to the free event and I remember the auditorium, with room for perhaps 400 people, still had many empty seats when two men unceremoniously carried Hawking down the steps between them by his knees and armpits and tossed him into his wheelchair (I presume they didn't have handicapped access back then).

He began speaking in long, drawn out croaks for minutes at a time, while an assistant translated for the audience and drew illustrations on a blackboard. I didn't understand a word of it (even after the translation) but a lot of the Fermilab scientists around us were all muttering to themselves and to each other and nodding or shaking their heads and gesticulating the entire time the lecture was going on, and couldn't even wait until Hawking was done with his talk to begin discussing it. They seemed to be enjoying what they were hearing, but we high school students were lost beyond hope in trying to figure out what we were supposed to be learning.

Now I'm glad that I took the opportunity to see Mr. Hawking speak before he was really famous, but at the time I didn't truly appreciate it.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Yet his comments about "what God was doing before He made the world", while humorous, point to the fact that the closer our scientists get to a description of the Big Bang, the closer they come to concluding that God did it.

You're reading something into Hawking's statement that isn't there. Cosmology in it's present state does not provide any testable or verifiable means of "concluding that God did it" - this statement has nothing to do with modern-day cosmology or science.

[Elsie]

Renowned Cosmologist Draws Sold-Out Crowd

 

Sold OUT???

 

 

How much was CHARGED???

 

 

I hope not $55!!!!

---

---

---

Stephen W. Hawking

Tue, Mar 13, 7:30pm	Sold Out *

* Sold Out — please contact our Ticket Office at 510.642.9988 for availability.

Or be added to our Notification List.

Just announced! Live Video Simulcast added in Wheeler Auditorium. Details.

Venue: Zellerbach Hall A

Price: $15/$20/$25

 

Born exactly 300 years after the death of Galileo, Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at

Cambridge University Stephen W. Hawking is widely considered to be the greatest scientific

thinker since Newton and Einstein. In a talk aimed at the general public, Professor Hawking

discusses theories on the Origin of the Universe. He explains how time can have a beginning

and the progress made by cosmologists in an area that has traditionally belonged to theologists

and philosophers.

[editor-surveyor]

"IMO, a clear demonstration that advancing scientific understanding of the universe, and belief in the existence of God as the Creator of the Universe, are not only compatible, BUT VERY LIKELY THE SAME THING."

Yes, in fact if you make two changes to Hawking's cosmos it matches Genesis quite well:

1. Make it a bounded universe (and thus by equal distribution of gravitation, spherical).

2. Place earth at the center, as God most certainly would have.

These two changes to a universe that expanded from a singularity give us D. Russell Humphreys' well thought out model, which allows distant bodies to be truly distant while still having a six day creation as measured at the center, through the gravitational dilation of time of Einstein's General Relativity.

When you get your science right, it never disagrees with God's word.

[agent_delta]

Why would he speak at a conference about hair?

huhh?

[Diplomat]

“What was God doing before He made the world?"

He was writting the software code used in the universe's construction. As a side note, the present situation of the big bang's math only works if you allow E=mc² to be ignored during the initial stage. I do not agree with this interpretation, however, I'm pleased that it is noted as such.

[DouglasKC]

Hawkings entire quote:

“If one believed that the universe had a beginning, the obvious question was, what happened before the beginning,” Hawking said. “What was God doing before He made the world? Was He preparing hell for people who asked such questions?”

I believe this is rather a sarcastic, arrogant response. If you read on it's obvious that Hawking has no use for God.

[Peacekeeper357]

And God said let there be light and there was light.
No Big Bang, space has no atmosphere to carry sound.

[Old Professer]

"A few “bubbles,” Hawking said, will grow to a certain size until they are safe from collapse, and will begin to develop galaxies, stars and eventually human life."

I wonder if the rest of the bubbles are just like us?

[cdbull23]

I actually went to that lecture. Funny AND interesting...and this coming from a guy who doesn't know much about science-type stuff.

[woofie]

My experience leads me to believe in the "Rather Large Pop" theory

[uglybiker]

Stephen Hawking never really wanted to be a cosmologist.