Posted on 05/15/2011 7:58:19 PM PDT by Steelfish
Stephen Hawking: 'There Is No Heaven; It's A Fairy Story' In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, the cosmologist shares his thoughts on death, M-theory, human purpose and our chance existence
Sunday 15 May 2011
A belief that heaven or an afterlife awaits us is a "fairy story" for people afraid of death, Stephen Hawking has said. In a dismissal that underlines his firm rejection of religious comforts, Britain's most eminent scientist said there was nothing beyond the moment when the brain flickers for the final time.
Hawking, who was diagnosed with motor neurone disease at the age of 21, shares his thoughts on death, human purpose and our chance existence in an exclusive interview with the Guardian today.
The incurable illness was expected to kill Hawking within a few years of its symptoms arising, an outlook that turned the young scientist to Wagner, but ultimately led him to enjoy life more, he has said, despite the cloud hanging over his future.
"I have lived with the prospect of an early death for the last 49 years. I'm not afraid of death, but I'm in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first," he said.
"I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark," he added.
Hawking's latest comments go beyond those laid out in his 2010 book, The Grand Design, in which he asserted that there is no need for a creator to explain the existence of the universe. The book provoked a backlash from some religious leaders, including the chief rabbi, Lord Sacks, who accused Hawking of committing an "elementary fallacy" of logic.
(Excerpt) Read more at guardian.co.uk ...
OK. Whatever.
Surely there is at least some doubt, considering that he constantly invoked the name and idea of God, and never, as far as I know, denied God.
“Data” is not the plural of “anecdote.”
True, but in all fairness theoretical physics is flush with concepts that are highly conjectural extrapolations based on a small set of observations.
I agree with what others here have said about the outright dismissal of an afterlife being unscientific.
Physicists have theorized the existence of multiple parallel universes, and I would not be surprised if Dr. Hawking also embraces these theories. Why is it a fairy tale to believe that we exist for a purpose, and to believe that there are other planes of existence beyond this one, but perfectly ‘rational’ and scientific to believe that multiple parallel universes exist?
For a person who may get to test his “no-heaven” hypothesis at any moment, he truly sounds overconfident!
-Theo
His logic is not cohesive.
Just an angry little man in a wheel chair who blames God for his life.
I read a book about Einstein and it was only a short period of his life (in the middle some where) where he did not believe in God.
However, later on and most of his life he had no doubt about God. The last think he was trying to figure out was the Theory of Everything. Here is one of Albert Einstein’s famous quotes,
“I want to know how God created this world. I am not interested in this or that phenomenon, in the spectrum of this or that element. I want to know his thoughts. The rest are details.”
Yeah sorry I STRONGLY disagree with you. That’s B.S. from the Atheist who misquote Einstein. Imagine that???
I read a book that said ONLY in a very short period of his life did Einstein did not believe in a God. As matter of fact he would get upset with Atheist that misquote him about God.
Here are some quotes from Einstein about Atheist.
“In the view of such harmony in the cosmos which I, with my limited human mind, am able to recognize, there are yet people who say there is no God. But what makes me really angry is that they quote me for support for such views.”
LOL! The above quote is so true. At one small point in Einstein’s life he had a brief period where he was not sure. This is what the Atheist love to quote. In reality Einstein pretty much most of his life had no doubt about God’s existence.
Here is another quote from Einstein about Atheist.
“Then there are the fanatical atheists whose intolerance is the same as that of the religious fanatics, and it springs from the same source … They are creatures who can’t hear the music of the spheres.”
One more quote from Einstein about Atheist.
“What separates me from most so-called atheists is a feeling of utter humility toward the unattainable secrets of the harmony of the cosmos.”
Here are some more famous Einstein quotes about God.
“I see a pattern, but my imagination cannot picture the maker of that pattern. I see a clock, but I cannot envision the clockmaker. The human mind is unable to conceive of the four dimensions, so how can it conceive of a God, before whom a thousand years and a thousand dimensions are as one?”
“We know nothing about [God, the world] at all. All our knowledge is but the knowledge of schoolchildren. Possibly we shall know a little more than we do now. but the real nature of things, that we shall never know, never.”
I am sad for him. Hawkings has an incredible mind, which is a gift from his creator. I think it might be easier for Hawking to deny God’s existence than to ask Him why he has had to live a life stuck in a body which doesn’t function.
He has free will to deny but that will come with a terrible cost at the end. I weep for him.
You’re right - my undergrad science degree doesn’t qualify me to be a “scientist.” However, I do no illogic when I see it.
Sure, why not make it up as you go along?
So he thinks there is no heaven, but there are “fairy’s”??????
He still evokes my pity more than anything else.
Upon what facts do you base your assertion?
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