[tlb]

>>> Britain’s most eminent scientist said there was nothing beyond the moment when the brain flickers for the final time.

Funny, he doesn’t sound British.

>>> He thinks matter comes from nothing? This is a scientist?

Applying Occam’s Razor that’s a simpler concept then believing an all powerful intelligent force came from nothing. That’s where faith comes in. No?

As for being a scientist, no he is being a philosopher, though unfairly given a boost from his legitimate scientific reputation. But as a philosopher, his opinions are worth no more then the next fellow. Anyone is entitled to an opinion, but by definition his mastery of physics does not address the metaphysical.

[FredZarguna]

Actually, as a philosopher, his opinions are worth considerably less than many others, because he has no real training in philosophy, and, as the recent embarrassment of his book on the subject makes clear, he hasn't bothered to really try and learn any. Most of his criticisms of religion and philosophy were demolished hundreds of years ago; in some cases, literally thousands.

It was once said: "Physicists seem to be the only scientists who aren't embarrassed to speak about God." As a former physicist, current apostate and agnostic, I take no pleasure in this reply: "considering what most physicists have actually had to say about God, they should have been."

Hawking is as qualified to talk about theology as most theologians are to talk about physics. Which is to say, not qualified at all.

[mdmathis6]

An all powerful omniscient God must necessarily have always existed, must currently exist and will always exist...or be “alpha and omega...the first and last” as the Bible says.

If God arose from a cause, then we must look past God and worship those forces from which He emerged.

Applying Occam’s razor to the questioned reality of God leads me to those two conclusions. It is observed generally in man that mankind has a built in impulse to worship “something” outside of himself.

Intellectuals though, often school themselves against such impulses believing that only knowledge derived by observation and inductive reasoning can lead to truth. According to such “intellectuals”, “supposed truth” based on tautologous arguments(ideas that can’t be logically proven true or false) must be viewed with benign suspicion at best...or at worst discarded by burnings of literatures and mass supressions of religious adherents, limiting their influences in the public arena if not outright killing them!