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A British journalist colleague & good friend of mine sent me this yesterday evening and after reading it, thought I'd share it-
God did not create the universe, the man who is arguably Britain's most famous living scientist says in a forthcoming book.
In the new work, The Grand Design, Professor Stephen Hawking argues that the Big Bang, rather than occurring following the intervention of a divine being, was inevitable due to the law of gravity.
In his 1988 book, A Brief History of Time, Hawking had seemed to accept the role of God in the creation of the universe. But in the new text, co-written with American physicist Leonard Mlodinow, he said new theories showed a creator is "not necessary".
The Grand Design, an extract of which appears in the Times today, sets out to contest Sir Isaac Newton's belief that the universe must have been designed by God as it could not have been created out of chaos.
"Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing," he writes. "Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist.
"It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going."
In the forthcoming book, published on 9 September, Hawking says that M-theory, a form of string theory, will achieve this goal: "M-theory is the unified theory Einstein was hoping to find," he theorises.
"The fact that we human beings – who are ourselves mere collections of fundamental particles of nature – have been able to come this close to an understanding of the laws governing us and our universe is a great triumph."
Hawking says the first blow to Newton's belief that the universe could not have arisen from chaos was the observation in 1992 of a planet orbiting a star other than our Sun. "That makes the coincidences of our planetary conditions – the single sun, the lucky combination of Earth-sun distance and solar mass – far less remarkable, and far less compelling as evidence that the Earth was carefully designed just to please us human beings," he writes.
Hawking had previously appeared to accept the role of God in the creation of the universe. Writing in his bestseller A Brief History Of Time in 1988, he said: "If we discover a complete theory, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason – for then we should know the mind of God."
Hawking resigned as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University last year after 30 years in the position.
Dr. Stephen Hawking Photo By Bruno Vincent~Getty Images
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What can be said about Stephen Hawking? He is the most brilliant man on the planet at this time and I perfectly agree with his statement in this case. Those of you in the UK should be quite proud of him, he is a product of your educational system. Well so was Newton, but he seems to have had a fruit fetish.
If one takes a rose bush in a pot into the house and places it in a dark closet the damn thing will wilt and die. But leave it in the sun and with the proper nourishment it will flourish and bloom. Is this God at work or the sun? Is it any wonder that past civilizations worshiped the sun?
In my modest opinion, and maybe Hawking's as well, God is the invention of man. The one stop and shop answer to everything we are too lazy to figure out. No one could ever accuse Hawking of being lazy and so his statements have more credibility than mine.
But humans are fallible and even those cultures where many dieties exist in religious form there is still an attempt to make one of them supreme. The Egyptians placed their sun god Ra at the top of the pyramid (nice joke that)and some think that development led to the monothiestic approach to the Hebrew image of God. We could argue this point for years and never come to agreement.
But Hawking's statement is a comparison of values, the theory of gravity vs. the theory of God. In the scientific community gravity has respect, it is a known quantity to the average guy, a mystery to be explored by physicists. But the God theory has no physical manifestation, it is just that, a theory that humans have accepted. I have always looked forward to the first alien landings because I sure have a lot of questions for them, the first being:
Do you believe in God? 
Age appears to be best in four things; old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read. (Sir Francis Bacon 1561-1626)
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ray2x
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Really getting into it |
Location: USA
Registered: April 2009
Messages: 430
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I had to roll my eyes. This being an election year, I could only envision the right wing mob glomming onto this tidbit and creating a nonissue event and totally confounding the election. But Hawking knows more about the universe and having read some of his writings, I can believe his views. And I also believe in God, the comforting one who would not care whether you were perfect or imperfect.
Raymundo
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Stephen Hawking Says Universe Not Created By God 
Re: Stephen Hawking Says Universe Not Created By God 
