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

reply to post by mantisfortress


I agree with you to an extent but so far with the lifeforms on earth we are able to observe it seems that as you increase the level of consciousness or intelligence boredom starts to become a bigger and bigger problem. Getting into a state of doing nothing for eternity and being completely satisfied with it sounds like a large leap backwards from our current level of consciousness and intelligence.

When most people imagine heaven they imagine being there in a form that very closely resembles "who they are," such as their personality. What is the point in becoming an entirely different being? It would be like starting from scratch in a new life. Why not just start from scratch in a new life? What is the point in being rewarded with a completely different eternal life for the insignificant goings on that you have experienced and contributed to in this very short life?

reply to post by SaturnFX

Come on man, we have this conversation every few million years.
What we do is what we always do...we simply squeeze back into some lifeform on some physical realm, re-experience the mortality of living, pass through the stages into death, and everything is brand new again..eternal suprises.

Ah, this is the point I was trying to make.

Any eternal afterlife, from the perspective of our current soul (if you believe in souls rather than one collective consciousness), would be tremendously boring. So the answer to the problem is either you change who the soul/consciousness is, or you change the game (by being reincarnated). To me the latter sounds like it is far more reasonable and logical. The here and now is our playground, our heaven.

reply to post by SaturnFX


Normally I dislike you for being a hard-assed atheist, but dude, that was awesome, brilliant! Bravo!

I myself believe that there isn't any heaven or hell, but in one of the dimensions we can't see(I do think those other dimensions are real), is where we go upon death. Our spirit, or whatever you want to call it, leaves the body and is free to go back to these other dimensions and the spirit, soul, whatever judges itself as to how life went. And possibly comes to this dimension again, if we judge we lacked in our judgment or did wrong and need to learn about that again. I cannot imagine life just ending, I believe we continue on in some sense.
Who can better judge our life we just lived, than ourselves? And if we judge ourselves, no need for a heaven or hell with their respective judges. We know what we did while we were here.

reply to post by zazzafrazz




I agree, the Christian Heaven is a fairy tale and doesn't fit into the grand scheme of things, but SH isn't doing much better. He claims that the search for knowledge drives his life, and for him all that exists is physical science. Somewhat one-sided?

Due to unfortunate circumstances SH is literally trapped in his mind and somehow missed the point that anyone making a Spiritual Journey knows... that the Path to God (or toward the Light) goes through the Heart not the head.

A smart guy but he "thinks" his brain brought him to where he is today (alive), and thus, he fails to recognize that it was really his Spirit. For the first time in my life I have a reason to feel sorry for the guy. Too bad he's missed the point of life by a Universe, or more.

Maybe he's not so smart after all but perhaps his physical disability prevents him from truly feeling?

SH is a miracle... yet he doesn't believe in miracles. Interesting.

Coming from a man (SH) who loves to allude to being the reincarnation of Sir Isaac Newton,i wont be putting much stock in his opinions.

Over the years I`m beginning to view Steve as the Justin Bieber of the science world,just someone with average talent in their fields and among their peers yet are marketable for profit or the for TPTB.

reply to post by Brown Bear



Most educated Christian's know that it is at the very least disrespectful to have that kind of view of the glory of God its almost a mockery. The way the Bible explains it is the best it could be put in words in the day and being recieved in the spirit and not observed by the flesh.

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

Hawking is being too narrow minded. Science is just now opening up new frontiers like string theory and the multiverse concept. Physicists at the forefront of quantum mechanics will tell you that "reality" is far stranger than most scientists thought of it only a couple of decades ago.

For Hawking to just make that pronouncement is silly. First of all, what definition of "heaven" is he referring to? You have to have an agreed upon standard definition to say scientifically it doesn't exist. In science, it is always more accurate to say, "We have yet to be able to prove or disprove the existence of..." Keeping it open ended is smart because you don't know what kind of breakthroughs will come in the future. Saying definitively that an alternate realm doesn't exist is just not good science.

Humans don't yet know how the universe or multiverse works. We don't know what dark matter is and we don't know what dark energy is, either. What we see and experience with our senses is only a tiny fraction of frequencies in an enormous combination of spectra.

We humans are still learning about the processes of death. Near death experiences are somewhat common, but have not yet been satisfactorily explained by science.

I would suggest that Dr. Hawking have afternoon tea with His Holiness The Dalai Lama. He might learn something.

Originally posted by Brown Bear
reply to post by zazzafrazz

 

I agree, the Christian Heaven is a fairy tale and doesn't fit into the grand scheme of things

The modern interpretation..

As I said, Jesus seemed to have something altogether more essential and practical, and loving, in mind, than what modern Christians assume. For all we know, the eternal life offered by Jesus Christ is so far reaching in its breadth and depth of imagination, that we fail to recognize it effecacy and application, in our very midst.. Me I think he was talking about a type of causation with all the tree and fruit and vineyard and harvest talk, something eternally present already aways, where the good meets the good for goodness sake, cleaving away that which isn't fruitful.. right now.

I think many of us in our ignorance simply assume too much right out of the gate so to speak, and in the process never make it to the real gateway of eternal life that could very well be our true condition in eternity already, even at this very moment ("the kingdom of heaven is here, now.")

Behold! Yes, for many among us, there is good reason to rejoice! Sad that Hawking is counting himself outside of our celebration, at this stage in our collective human evolution, way to go dude and we were willing to overlook outward appearances for the sake of a common bond we share in God's eternal heavenly household.

His Reply
"Life. Is. Meaningless and without - purpose."
(heard in Stephen Hawking's computer voice speaking as if it is the very voice of God)

reply to post by spacedonk


Thank you for bringing this to light. I think Stephen Hawking has believed in this a long time maybe hes just waiting for the right time to say it; now that many people are seeing Religion for what it really is.

A Fallacy

Originally posted by EnigmaticDill
reply to post by Brown Bear

 

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

"No eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the mind of man concieved, what God has in store for those who love him."

And from what I've seen, like the Hubble Deep field and other recent discoveries that suggest the observable universe, relative to the rest of the whole universe, may be but the size of an atom, to the observable universe - God's got plenty in store, to say the least!

reply to post by NewAgeMan


Now aint that something?

Has Stephen Hawking any experience with any of the various shamanistic plants and fungus?
I'd be very interested to hear f his experience through some careful, guided journeys.

That's his opinion, it's not a fact.
Just like religious zealots who claim God exists, that's an opinion, not fact.
None of us really know for sure and won't know til "God" unveils himself, or when we die. simple as that

Originally posted by EnigmaticDill
reply to post by Brown Bear

 

Most educated Christian's know that it is at the very least disrespectful to have that kind of view of the glory of God its almost a mockery. The way the Bible explains it is the best it could be put in words in the day and being recieved in the spirit and not observed by the flesh.

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

Sorry Mate... you've responded to me, apparently, but I don't understand your point. Please flesh it out a little.

But before you do... please don't take the position that Christians have a corner on God... because nothing could be farther from the Truth.

The Kingdom of Heaven is within... SH has apparently devoted all of his efforts to an external search for something which is, by its very nature, Esoteric. Like a lot of people, he's looking in the wrong direction.,

Originally posted by CoolStoryMan
That's his opinion, it's not a fact.
Just like religious zealots who claim God exists, that's an opinion, not fact.
None of us really know for sure and won't know til "God" unveils himself, or when we die. simple as that

Then you, and I, and "we" will never see God if we cannot already see God looking at God from within God, simple as that.

That's all good that he has that opinion, but in mine he is acting on faith that life stops when we die as much as those who act on faith that there is a god/afterlife etc. He doesn't know that any of what he says is true. That is the one thing that bugs me about science. It is taken as fact, yet over the years it constantly proves itself wrong and changes. Same with all our facts about space, You can show me a picture of something light years away and tell me what is and why it's there but truthfully you don't really know. No one does your just going on what is believed at the time and I'd say it's a safer bet that if we ever get to said object or someone comes to us from it you'll end up being wrong.

That got a little off topic so yeah Steve may be right but he could just as easily be wrong. Personally I don't hold anything he says above anyone else.

Just because Hawking is a great scientist doesn't mean he knows it all. Some people cling to another human beings words too much, you have too much faith in man because of who they are in society and you have not seen anything to counter it. But some have.

I do believe in actual spirits, and afterlife, it's really a no brainer for me, those that have not seen it can't understand, I didn't until I was 24. I denied it more than some of the atheists here. I went into the paranormal line as a hobby, a reason to play in the dark and find the final answer I was determined to find that I could live with, I have seen actual spiritual formations, that just cannot be tossed away as trash or some reason of the mind, of human voice and form. With scientific documentation. It's just there, don't know why, don't ask why, it's just there.

That should be enough, but again there are very few that have had actual real, definitive, clear minded, no other way around it proof. It's not always in the pictures, or the evps, if you don't find it, you don't believe it, its that simple and I thought that way and I still do with afterlife crossed off the list.

There are energies with human form and voice all around you, I believe our energy is transformed, never wasted. We know we are alive now. And someone that maybe feels that same way in a 100 years will feel like they were around before.

Once we die, when we live again we will just live and everything we did now will feel like deja vu.

I have evidence not, '' it's a fairy tale ''. I mean ok, and???

If I were Stephen Hawking where and how he is right now..Id be saying there is no God therefore no life after death too! Gotta feel for the wee guy no??
And before anyone starts, yes..I know he has been physically handicapped for years and years and manages to do some fine ( apparently) work, but you have to know he would be resentful. Surely.
God does not exist for him = no life after death for him.
OK Stephen. I can live with that
And WHY does anyone care what Stephen Hawking says on this particular matter I wonder. He has cocked up on the Black Hole issues remember.

reply to post by spacedonk


This is "breaking" alternative news? They ask the guy that rolled snake eyes in the crap shoot of life: "Do you believe there is a heaven?" He blinks "No!" And this is news? It's a slow news day, week, month, year, decade...... light year! The saddest part of this is that Hawking wasn't able to kick his interviewer in the nads.