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Stephen Hawking says God did not create the universe
Hawking said the Big Bang is merely the consequence of the law of gravity.
Thu, Sep 02 2010 at 7:49 AM
CREATION: Hawking cites the discovery of a planet orbiting a star outside our own solar system as a turning point against Isaac Newton's belief the universe couldn't have arisen out of chaos. (Photo: ZUMA Press)
God no longer has any place in theories on the creation of the universe due to a series of developments in physics, British scientist Stephen Hawking said in extracts published Thursday from a new book.
In a hardening of the more accommodating position on religion that he took in his 1988 international best-seller "A Brief History of Time," Hawking said the Big Bang was merely the consequence of the law of gravity.
"Because there is a law such as gravity, the Universe can and will create itself from nothing.
"Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist," he writes in "The Grand Design", which is being serialised by The Times newspaper.
"It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the Universe going," added the wheelchair-bound expert.
Hawking has achieved worldwide fame for his research, writing and television documentaries despite suffering since the age of 21 motor neuron disease that has left him disabled and dependent on a voice synthesiser.
In "A Brief History of Time", Hawking had suggested that the idea of God or a divine being was not necessarily incompatible with a scientific understanding of the universe.
But in his latest work, Hawking cites the 1992 discovery of a planet orbiting a star outside our own solar system as a turning point against Isaac Newton's belief that the universe could not have arisen out of chaos.
"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 wrote.
Hawking argued earlier this year that mankind's only chance of long-term survival lies in colonising space, as humans drain Earth of resources and face a terrifying array of new threats.
He also warned in a recent television series that mankind should avoid contact with aliens at all costs, as the consequences could be devastating.
Copyright 2010 AFP European Edition
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yeah right...like he knows...this is the path science went down when they started declaring all there unproven theories to be facts. Now they just need to guess and people regard it as science.
the bible is alot of unproven facts, so we can regard that as what?
Why would the discovery of a planet in another solar system orbiting a star discount creation by God? Would God not have created all things including this other solar system as well?
I don't think the man is looking for pity. Your comment title is self-righteous and insulting.
This is ridiculous. There wouldn't be any laws without creation, God bless him anyhow