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“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?”
According to Hawking, the origin of the universe can be depicted as bubbles in a steam in boiling water.
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There are a number of implied preconditions in the "God" paragraph that rely on the natural thought process of accepting sequential time based events as factual constructs of our reality and likewise the ultimate reality of all things including God's place in time. It's a silly paragraph and the 'hell' reference is curious. The article reports that Hawking is apparently committed to the idea of the ultimate beginning, or as stated, an 'origin'. If he does in fact believe there was a 'beginning', then there can be no God unless God created Godself from nothing.
I have no idea what Hawking's views are regarding God. I'm making comments on the article in isolation of anything else. Furthermore, I mean not to challenge your point of view on the subject in general.
I interpreted the "hell" reference as a way of suggesting that while God might encourage us to develop science as a tool to understanding "our side" of time/space, that crossing the boundary was getting into "Godspace" as it were -- a realm where our mathematics fail, where our comprehension fails, where we must not go. Of course, that's to be taken as a challenge by any scientist...
> The article reports that Hawking is apparently committed to the idea of the ultimate beginning, or as stated, an 'origin'. If he does in fact believe there was a 'beginning', then there can be no God unless God created Godself from nothing.
Or, perhaps, that the very nature of "existence" as we conceive it does not apply to God. We anthropomorphize God at our peril.
> I have no idea what Hawking's views are regarding God. I'm making comments on the article in isolation of anything else. Furthermore, I mean not to challenge your point of view on the subject in general.
Oh, you're welcome to challenge my point of view, so long as you don't restrict my ability to hold it and defend it, or change it if it suits me. Challenge is what makes us stronger and smarter, and as it happens, it was through challenge that I came to my belief in God.
I believe that quote can actually be attributed to St. Augustine. Stephen Hawking simply used it to add some humor to his presentation. He did in fact cite St. Augustine on his visuals.