[Khepera]

[Gay State Conservative]

Of course Hawking ignored the request of the Pope.He's an atheist.

[Arm_Bears]

Something's up--The little twit has been in the news a lot the past couple of weeks.

[ASA Vet]

I would also like to understand women

How many lanes on that bridge from CA to HI does he want?

[sinkspur]

This sounds apocryphal, to me. John Paul II was a keen intellectual and respected other intellectuals.

I can't believe that he would ask anyone to refrain from investigating anything, especially in the absence of a like request of some other scientist.

[BaBaStooey]

I think the Pope may have simply found Hawking's lack of faith disturbing.

There are things science can't explain (or can't yet explain). One of these things is the creation of the universe. Faith is supposed to fill the gaps.

I find the search for the truth a noble cause, and those who search are noble persons. However, to search for the truth because one has no faith to fill the gaps, that is a troubling thought.

[wallcrawlr]

great comment

He urged people with physical disabilities not to give up on their ambitions.

"You can't afford to be disabled in spirit as well as physically," he said. "People won't have time for you."

[Prokopton]

What does this mean?

"It's OK to study the universe and where it began. But we should not enquire into the beginning itelf because that was the moment of creation and the work of God."

It's OK to study the beginning of the universe but not OK to study the beginning itself? This doesn't make sense and I doubt it is an actual quote.

[Unam Sanctam]

I doubt it, and I would like to see some corroborating evidence. The man who wrote Fides et Ratio has nothing to fear from objective scientific inquiry.

[Diplomat]

Pope John Paul II once told scientists they should not study the beginning of the universe because it was the work of God.

Seems to me that if what Hawkings states is true, there are other witnesses who can verify it.

So Steven "don't call me JF Kerry" Hawkings, who are the other scientists who witnessed the pope making this statement? Don't tell me they're all dead too.

[Antoninus]

"I was glad he didn't realize I had presented a paper at the conference suggesting how the universe began. I didn't fancy the thought of being handed over to the Inquisition like Galileo."

What a jokester.

Somehow, I think ol' Steve either is making stuff up, or misunderstood what the Pope said to him.

[eleni121]

Hawking ended his lecture saying, "We are getting closer to answering the age-old questions: Why are we here? Where did we come from?"

---

It won't be long now that we find out Stephen...for any of us.

[isom35]

I think I saw Hawking in a Capt. Pike wheelchair on tv in the last couple days.

[BlessedBeGod]

I'd like to know word-for-word exactly what JPII said before I'd ever come to a conclusion on this. Who knows what the context was.

[Varda]

I remember reading about this. The other scientists in the conference didn't recall anything of the kind being said and a transcript of the remarks didn't show anything either.

[muir_redwoods]

"But in 1992, Pope John Paul II issued a declaration saying that the church's denunciation of Galileo was an error resulting from "tragic mutual incomprehension."

Mutual? I'm fairly confident Galileo understood the church.

[clyde asbury]

Pope ping

[Old Professer]

Hawking, himself no longer knows what he's hawking.