Stephen Hawking's 'The Grand Design' -- God Didn't Make the Universe

Stephen Hawking: God Didn't Make the Universe, Physics Did

John DeRonde
John DeRonde, Yahoo! Contributor Network
Sep 3, 2010 "Share your voice on Yahoo! websites. Start Here."
Stephen Hawking has made assertions as to the role played by God at the start of the universe. Hawking thinks, unlike Sir Isaac Newton, that gravity is not a sign of God's presence. Gravity is simply a force that naturally occurs with matter and will subsequently "create from nothing." Hawking is offering an alternative theory to Newton's concept: that God designed and created the universe.

The universe, according to Hawking's studies, has the ability, through certain laws, such as gravity, to self generate. "The Grand Design" will hopefully reveal more detail on his position. As most current excerpts are limited and incomplete, many statements can be made out of context or misused.

Hawking's time as a Cambridge math professor, the same position held by Newton, seemed to have an influence on his pursuit of Quantum theory answers. But answers to these sorts of questions always seem to change in the scientific community. As new theories are tested, more adopters will join in support, and some will look to disprove the theory in light of newer information.

So in any debate over theoretical physics, some scientists will agree and disagree. But Hawking seems to have gained support for this new assertion. One leading scientist who support's Hawking, Richard Dawkins, is an atheist and supports this solution fully. Members of the atheist community find this purely scientific solution to the ultimate question accurate and accommodating. Science is looking for scientific reasons, while religion seems to have the answers already. Maybe the scientific community has solution-envy, but many consider religions' solutions to be only a theory of God.

"The Grand Design" will provide the scientific community with a new set of science-based answers to the origins of the universe. Quantum physicists will certainly look to prove this theory over a long period of time. The longer the theory stands against analysis, the more credibility the theory will gain. Proving the theory is still going to be challenging, if not impossible, in our day.

This bold statement by Hawking is surely to bring many religious leaders to state their contrary positions. Religion could easily offer another theory to best Hawking's book. As the book of Genesis mentions, in the beginning, there was nothing, as "God created the heavens and the earth." Religious leaders may suggest that God did not need to light a torch to set the universe in motion because he created all the matter in the universe, thus causing gravity to exist.

Sources

Quinn, J. (2010). Stephen Hawking: God NOT Needed For Creation. HuffingtonPost.com. Retrieved September 2, 2010 from: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/09/02/stephen-hawking-god-not-n_n_703179.html

Skynews. (2010). Stephen Hawking Picks Physics Over God for Big Bang. Foxnews.com. Retrieved September 2, 2010 from: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/09/02/stephen-hawking-picks-physics-god-big-bang/?test=latestnews

Boyle, A. (2010). Hawking says God's not needed. So? Msnbc.com. Retrieved September 2, 2010 from: http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/09/01/5028472-hawking-says-gods-not-needed-so

Published by John DeRonde

John DeRonde is a freelance writer with content published through Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Sports, Associated Content or Yahoo! Contributor Network, and elsewhere.   View profile

More from
  • God not needed in creation of universe.

23 Comments

Post a Comment
  • E.Paramasivan 9/27/2010

    Hawking is hitting his nail on this big VOID.Already String theorists through their "S" Duality (coupling constants) and "T" Duality (extra curled up or compactified more dimenstions say 11 or 26)has undermined the sanctity of godly things.the M theory is mathematical hammer to prove a godless universe.the dimensions are the "world tube" of manifolds to moore the multivereses.Hawking in a fitting reply to the "information paradox" resorted to this mutiverse with black holes that are just a "cosmic censor" (in terms of Dr.Penrose).the black holes are the horizons so to say a "communicating" "p-brane world"with a grinding halt in "singularity".Physics in this sense definitely indifferent and unworrying (sans godly) affair of wisdom.

  • Biff 9/26/2010

    God exists, but not in a literal or factual way. Like a split personality, God is just a self created, self inspired crutch to compensate for a lack of genuine knowledge. The idea of god is a powerful one. Thousands of years of evolution in the human psyche has forced God to have an answer for everything. The fact that matter in and of its self now has a published theory of it's existence besides what we normally cling to is just another chapter in the book, "My Dad Could Beat Up Your Dad." Good luck on the couterattack Drop Dead Fred!

  • CfCS 9/17/2010

    Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow write a sequel to "A Brief History of Time" to attempt to answer the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything. Both authors assess their belief that the M-Theory is the only viable candidate for a complete "theory of everything".

    Nothing more far from reality! Once again Hawking presents us his superficial thinking and outdated theories, being completely unaware of recentest scientific advances...

    http://canonicalscience.blogspot.com/2010/09/grand-design-by-stephen-hawking-and.html

  • newton.li 9/12/2010

    世界天才霍金教授自我否定【宇宙大爆炸等理论....】，盲目跟着跑的我该怎么办？
    就霍金新著『The Grand Design（グランド・デザイン）』一书9月3日披露部分要点引起世界强力评论。
    Newton.li物理学家，非常欢迎英国数学天文学家霍金,在世界物理学家,科学精英用大量事实揭露不少传统物理学和天文物理学等理论错误的情况下，开始觉醒。让霍金猛然从原错误理论思想中退出…..? 让他得以在世界出名的[时间简史]，曾受到newton.li LMPN物理学理论文章多次的直接批评，和在全世界范围内多次的批评。让他在[A Brief History of Time]中，以神论为中心，以一个小质点为宇宙大爆炸中心的说法和理论…..发生重大改变？从最近的一字不提大爆炸的事情,到猛然披露『The Grand Design（グランド・デザイン）』一书中的内容,完全改变原来错误的说法。知错改错当然受到全

  • sigmund fraud 9/8/2010

    it seems as though the author didn't read the book, but he's right about m-theory; it's still completely speculative. for now.

  • Agus Satoto 9/5/2010

    I do not need to comment on Professor Hawking's new book. Please go to this site and you will know the truth: http://www.ediscoverislam.com/Quran-Islam-and-Science/Islam-Quran-and-Science/the-holy-quran-and-modern-science
    Regards from Indonesia

  • vaibhav mohod 9/5/2010

    i want just the answer of some question like.take example of "statue of liberty "it just not happen by chance ,is it? no !!! someone has made it .and anything from simple things as artifical flower didn't made by just putting some colors ,brushes,paper,etc .no someone has to made it .sometimes we not able to guess the artifical & natural one ???so artifical require a creater then what about the natural?? yes , someone has to made it !!this is not example there infinite examples .as cars ,buldings ,cpmputer, mobile ,satelite ,etc .if these things needs creater then what about the universe ????

  • Ron Krumpos 9/4/2010

    In "The Grand Design" Stephen Hawking postulates that the M-theory may be the Holy Grail of physics...the Grand Unified Theory which Einstein had tried to formulate and later abandoned. It expands on quantum mechanics and string theory.

    In my e-book on comparative mysticism, is quote by Albert Einstein: “…most beautiful and profound emotion we can experience is the sensation of the mystical. It is the sower of all true science. To know that what is impenetrable to us really exists, manifesting itself as the highest wisdom and most radiant beauty – which our dull faculties can comprehend only in their primitive form – this knowledge, this feeling, is at the center of all religion.”

    Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity is probably the best known scientific equation. I revised it to help better understand the relationship between divine Essence (spirit), matter (mass/energy: visible/dark) and consciousness (fx raised to its gratest power). Unlike the speed of light, which i

  • Joel 9/4/2010

    Although these religions do out-date Christianity, they do not out-date Judaism. Christianity branched off 2,000 years ago. Now I'm not gonna sit here and say I know everything because no-one does, but what I do know, is if I see a computer in a desert I will not think it created itself. I see complexity of nature and the universe and think the same. You can believe what you want, but you can NEVER rule out the option of Intelligent Design.

  • Tribal11k 9/4/2010

    Anna, I absolutely agree. I got asked the other day why I had not chosen to believe in God. I told them that I saw no reason to and that I never had any experience of God even though I was a Christian and believed in God when I was younger.

    They replied that my faith was obviously not strong enough and I should try again...

Displaying Comments
Next »

To comment, please sign in to your Yahoo! account, or sign up for a new account.