9/20/2010

Stephen Hawking vs. God

Mike Wittmer, over at his Don’t Stop Believing blog, looks at Stephen Hawking and his new book The Grand Design.  An excerpt ran in The Wall Street Journal (“Why God Did Not Create the Universe”).

Wittmer writes,

Hawking concedes that our universe is finely tuned for our existence, but argues that the sheer number of universes makes it probable that life somewhere would exist, and that it would take the form of whatever its particular universe would allow.  If our universe had different conditions then whatever life existed here would simply take a different form.

Wittmer has a few observations based on the WSJ article:

  1. How can spontaneous creation come from nothing?  How can nothing do something?  According to Maria Von Trapp, “Nothing comes from nothing.  Nothing ever could.” 
  2. How can there be a law of gravity and quantum theory if nothing exists?  Gravity is a relationship between two bodies, and if there are no bodies then there is no gravity.  So how can a non-existent law of gravity produce a spontaneous creation? 
  3. Hawking’s last sentence is a metaphor, but it does show how difficult it is to conceive of nothing causing something.  What he is describing is more than igniting “blue touch paper.”  He is claiming that a fire began from nothing–no paper, no wood, nothing.
  4. Hawking’s assertion that nothing spontaneously created something is a religious rather than a scientific claim.  It arises from his presupposition that God does not exist, and this faith commitment is not checkable by the scientific method.  Hawking is committed to his religious belief that there is no God.  He is not the objective, dispassionate observer that he portrays.
  5. Rom. 1:18-32 declares that everyone knows there is a God, and Psalm 14:1 and 53:1 assert that only a fool would say that there is no God.  Hawking is a genius, but his assertion that the universe spontaneously formed from nothing shows how far some people will go to avoid bowing down before the God they know exists.
  6. So we have two couldn’t-be-more-different choices for the cause of the universe:  God or nothing.  Which do you think is more likely?

3 comments:

Anirudh Kumar Satsangi said...

Now I give Radhasoami Faith view of Creation Theory. In Sar Bachan (Poetry) composed by His Holiness Soamiji Maharaj the August Founder of Radhasoami Faith the details of creation and dissolution has been described very scientifically. It is written in this Holy Book: Only He Himself (Supreme Father)and none else was there. There issued forth a great current of spirituality, love and grace (In scientific terminology we may call this current as gravitational wave). This is called His Mauj (Divine Ordainment). This was the first manifestation of Supreme Being. This Divine Ordainment brought into being three regions, viz., Agam, Alakh, and Satnam of eternal bliss. Then a current emerged with a powerful sound. It brought forth the creation of seven Surats or currents of various shades and colours (in scientific terminology we may call it electromagnetic waves). Here the true Jaman or coagulant was given (in scientific terminology this coagulant may be called as weak nuclear force and strong nuclear force). Surats, among themselves, brought the creation into being.

These currents descended down further and brought the whole universe/multi verse into being i.e. black holes, galaxies etc. were born.

Anirudh Kumar Satsangi said...

There can't be a divine formula, I agree. But I feel Gravitation Force and Consciousness are the two names of the same Supreme Essence. Its speed is infinitely higher than the speed of light on black holes where light can't escape from its force of attraction.

caucazhin said...

"God is no respector of persons"
And that means Pharoh, Alexander the Great, Ceasar, Nietzsche, George Washington, Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Paine, Einstein or that pathetic scrunched up little man in the wheel chair ! ! !