Stephen Hawking: 'There is no heaven; it's a fairy story'

Originally posted by subbyActually, I was wrong, a quick search reveals he is the 8th most intelligent man alive. There's your answer.

I guess it depends on your definition of intelligence. Maybe in this case it means the percentage of people who believe he's intelligent.

Originally posted by babybunnies
My thoughts are this.

If God is an all powerful, omnipotent being, why does he require that his followers worship him?

If he was truly all powerful, he wouldn't give a hoot whether people worshipped him or totally ignored him.

As far as him being "benign" and "all forgiving" don't make me laugh and don't get me stated.

Only Lord God demands worship from us. God does not.

Jesus said: we shouldn't worship him. But... if we want to worship, we should worship God.

NB.

There is a conflict between bible worshipers and Jesus.

Jesus called all of us Gods children, But Christian Bible believers say that Jesus is Gods only begotten son?

The Bible is a Human inspiration of Gods words played out in someones mind? Of Course heaven is real.

I am already married to a huge control freak. I don't need to spend eternity under one. Give me oblivion. Faith is faith to each his own.

Does he have a new book coming out, or just trying to flog some older ones perhaps?

It seems Hawking's course of action for the last couple of years, and probably for his few remaining - is to bring to the table some new "big" radical theories, without any scientific basis whatsoever - just what I call a "Hawking Guess". What was it first, aliens don't exist - or was it aliens do exist but we should be wary, they will try and eat us? Now, there is no life after death/heaven, whatever. Give him half a year and I'm sure he'll be releasing his next radical quote with no scientific backing to help his book sales grow.

I don't have a problem with him, when he's dealing with straight science and stuff, but his recent talk of aliens, heaven etc just seems like publicity stunts. Someone hook him up to some ketamine and he might re-think his own reality.

Personally I believe that God is more of something inside of us all. The feelings of love and hate and anger and all the rest of it may just be chemical balance, but I believe that our souls have something to do with these feelings as well. I feel our soul, or whatever it is, goes on to somewhere else when we die. I don't subscribe to any religion though, but I do think our human bodies are a vessel. Albeit a very intricate one.

Originally posted by subby
Stephen Hawking is the most intelligent man alive. When he talks, I listen.
I agree 100% that there is no such thing as the 'supernatural'. Science will eventually explain everything.
Fate and destiny are fantasies to help unhappy people feel better.

edit on 16-5-2011 by subby because: (no reason given)

The most intelligent man does not exist

People on this planet are limited.

Originally posted by Gab1159

Originally posted by subby
Stephen Hawking is the most intelligent man alive. When he talks, I listen.

Then you are a sheeple.

Do not listen, think.

edit on 16-5-2011 by Gab1159 because: (no reason given)

What? Try communicating an intelligent idea instead of clichéd, pseudo-cryptic nonsense

As much as you would like to be, you are not Morpheus.

Originally posted by subby
Stephen Hawking is the most intelligent man alive. When he talks, I listen.
I agree 100% that there is no such thing as the 'supernatural'. Science will eventually explain everything.
Fate and destiny are fantasies to help unhappy people feel better.

edit on 16-5-2011 by subby because: (no reason given)

edit: I since discovered he is the 8th most intelligent man alive.

edit on 16-5-2011 by subby because: (no reason given)

as if that were in any way provable! what, does wikipedia have a page on the smartest people alive? what about some freak genius kid in india who does a million calculations per second but will never rise out of his slum-city life? what about people who haven't achieved international fame and success? are the commoners less qualified to wax philosophical on the nature of life and existence than the professionals?

what makes your own thoughts and opinions on the matter any better OR worse than mr. hawkings? certainly the man deserves our respect, but only when it pertains to his specialized field of study. which is most certainly not philosophy. or theosophy. or theology. so... what makes him any more qualified to make these kinds of statements than us? has he been looking for god his entire career? no. he only deduces that because he theorizes on the nature of the universe, and because he himself did not discover the smoking-gun proof for god and the afterlife, that neither exist.

Hate to disagree with the good Dr., but how does he rectify his idea with the Law that states Energy isn't created or destroyed?

To be honest, even though I'm not a Christian, or any other definable "theist", modern physics ideas seem to validate the idea of different dimensions, etc., and it isn't entirely inconceivable that our energy upon death moves into another dimension.

We're so limited with out 5 senses, that the idea that we can even experience all of the Universe is just preposterous.

reply to post by spacedonk



It is a fairy story we got to stop speculating on the bible, what was written it did happen or it didnt no interpretations.


and as the jew joke goes... "we wrote the new testament because the old was to harsh" or something li it..."

I could find the quote, crucify me.

Not to completely disrespect the man, but most things I hear from him through the news these days really just make me shake my head and say "So what?".

Nothing interesting here. Cool that you posted it, though, but I find Stephen's ideas to be almost somewhat insulting to the natural wonders all around us which we can't explain through science. Anyone could write this..

I'm not religious, yet the extreme side to the scientific mind can be just as confusing and misguided for a human being.

Originally posted by onequestion
reply to post by spacedonk

 

[snip]
You scientist really need an education. You don't even understand the context of the language your using to create these ideas. Historical linguistics should be a a pre-req to any degree offered by any college.

Is the chef expected to raise his own meat and grow his own vegetables?
Is IBM expected to mine and process their own silicon?
Are carpenters expected to saw and hew their own lumber?

I guess what it all boils down to is specialization.

The only reason Stephen Hawking gets any attention is because he's a gimp. If he was walking around spouting his nonsense with a real larynx, he'd have a world of debunkers. But, because it's PC to kiss his ass, everybody hangs on his ever word. He's just another scientist who is firmly grounded in the material world and HE can't quantify it, then it must not exist. There are plenty of credible scientist who say there IS a God, but they don't talk with some cool contraption and cruise around in a wheel chair, so it's not cool to believe them. Thread fail.

reply to post by Khurzon


Good point - but is it fair for him to tout his speculations as scientific insight, or some type of metaphysical/ gnostic insight? I believe not. (... @ 'believe' ... )

This is made even more grave by the fact that he is considered a person of some intellectual authority.

How many lazy/ easily satisfied young people will spend at least the next few years believing that it's all hocum, just because 'The Great Genius Stephen Hawking' said it?

reply to post by General.Lee


That's just inappropriate.

Second...

I still fail to understand the need to humanize the driving force of life into a single “god-like-creator-being”. There is no god, at least not in the sense established by any religious or spiritual movement. There is no heaven or hell or any other theoretical afterlife as described by countless text and stories.

Energy is matter, it is neither created nor destroyed. It simply disperses and gets rearranged. Life exists as a manifestation of energy exerted through an organized collection of cell. When we die, when any organic structure dies or is destroyed, it breaks down to it’s simplest form and that energy is released back into the world to bond with other free energies. This creates a new life. Nature is the greatest recycler.

If you feel it necessary to ascribe this force a humanistic character as a way to better comprehend it awesomeness then I suppose that is your choice. It must give you some sense of grandness, a sense of importance in this tiny insignificant world. You must not be able to cope with the reality that your life is for all intents and purposes, meaningless in the scope of the universe. As unnoticed to the universe as a single cell in your body is to you.

I wish you all the best.

Originally posted by Gazrok
..modern physics ideas seem to validate the idea of different dimensions, etc., and it isn't entirely inconceivable that our energy upon death moves into another dimension.

We're so limited with out 5 senses, that the idea that we can even experience all of the Universe is just preposterous.

I agree entirely that there are probably other dimensions we don't yet know about, but fail to see why we must include ourselves in it. It's like a human narcissism that we can't imagine a universe that doesn't need us.

As for how we measure a person's intelligence, the IQ test is the common tool I was referring to.

I'm a fan of Hawking, but he tiptoes around the underlying issue - not of a heaven or hell, rather that you cannot derive something from nothing. Even if you consider sub atomic particles, where things get smaller and smaller to an infinitesimal level, sooner or later it begets the question "where does it end"?

Originally posted by General.Lee
The only reason Stephen Hawking gets any attention is because he's a gimp. If he was walking around spouting his nonsense with a real larynx, he'd have a world of debunkers. But, because it's PC to kiss his ass, everybody hangs on his ever word. He's just another scientist who is firmly grounded in the material world and HE can't quantify it, then it must not exist. There are plenty of credible scientist who say there IS a God, but they don't talk with some cool contraption and cruise around in a wheel chair, so it's not cool to believe them. Thread fail.

Well the poor fella needs to make a living.

He wouldn't make much money by stating that Heaven exists. If he did make such claim he would have to explain him self with facts. Now he won't have to.

Originally posted by General.Lee
The only reason Stephen Hawking gets any attention is because he's a gimp. If he was walking around spouting his nonsense with a real larynx, he'd have a world of debunkers. But, because it's PC to kiss his ass, everybody hangs on his ever word. He's just another scientist who is firmly grounded in the material world and HE can't quantify it, then it must not exist. There are plenty of credible scientist who say there IS a God, but they don't talk with some cool contraption and cruise around in a wheel chair, so it's not cool to believe them. Thread fail.

If that's a 'Christian' attitude, I'm definitely staying with the Atheists.