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

reply to post by spacedonk


I wonder if he feels this way because how could a god be so cruel. Personally I just think he is arrogant. Has anything this guy thought up stood the test of time......Food for thought.



He is treated as this generations Einstein...........Einstein he is not.

SubTruth
He is treated as this generations Einstein...........Einstein he is not.

This is absolutely true. Einstein was a once in 300 year physicist, on a level with Isaac Newton, and one of the greatest conceptualists who ever lived. Hawking is a great physicist but he is no Einstein.

The greatest physicists of the 20th century, Einstein and Planck were both very humble when it came to talking about the universe. Planck didn't believe in a personal god but he did believe that the real nature of things is unknowable by us, in terms that fall within the modalities and standards of science because we ourselves, including our thought processes, are natural.

Hawking is a product of a culture that believes it too is "entitled" to an Einstein and is going to have one, even if that person has to be largely a media confection.

reply to post by spacedonk


Of course he is right. Good on Hawking for not mincing his words and speaking out against religious BS.

Nobama
reply to post by spacedonk

 

I agree with what he said, but who exactly is he to say there is no afterlife?

the same goes for me I can say I dont believe in a afterlife, but there's always a chance Im wrong.

That's true of anything though. Pink unicorns. Dragons. Hyperintelligent shades of the colour blue. Celestial teapots.

There comes a point at which you have to make a practical shortcut and say "Ok, this thing - it's bull#"

Or do you agonize and say "Well, I can't know for absolutely certain that pink unicorns don't exist, therefore..".. Not unless you are a space cadet. Most of us here on Earth just say unicorns are BS.

Like this statement - This is BS -

milkyway12
What Mr. Hawkings seems to do is replace God .. with Aliens.

edit on 04/30/2011 by milkyway12 because: (no reason given)

For crying out loud, his name is Hawking. Singular. Just one of them. I can't believe how many make this mistake.

And that statement is nonsense. Hawking allows for the possibility of aliens, yes (like anyone with a functioning brain). He might even have responded to some interviewer that he allows for directed panspermia. So what? It's a valid hypothesis, at least as good as any other.

He has not ever said that aliens definitely seeded life on Earth, or that aliens created the cosmos. This is just more strawman nonsense from the dishonest religious crowd.



ETA - And all this "Oh he's just angry at God because he is a cripple" crap sickens me. It really does.

If the only leap, the only conclusion you can make is that he is mad because he is a cripple then I think you should go back to your trailer park and stuff your face full of grits, because that is a stupid, bigotted conclusion.

How about he came to this conclusion just as a ordinary thinking person? Perhaps his insights in physics have helped, but this idea that atheists are really angry at God is stupid. Firstly, no one chooses what we believe in. Secondly, we don't believe in a god, so why would we be angry at something we don't believe in?

I'm not angry with Father Christmas. I don't throw darts at the Easter Bunny. I don't have a grudge against Papa Smurf.

I've come to the conclusion they don't exist, not because I am angry with them, but because their is no good evidence for their existence, just like your god.

reply to post by ReturnofTheSonOfNothing

He also believes in spontaneous generation.

What a wise man he is.

Wait ,no,no.

He is an idiot.

If it wasn't for his handicap he would be a noname joke

O wait... he is

www.google.com... NGo8pNboI4mwXrTbuIwVwakHTRLWQ

reply to post by Another_Nut


"The Associaion for Scriptural Knowledge"!? Oh please...

I crap more reliable information..

ReturnofTheSonOfNothing
reply to post by Another_Nut

 

"The Associaion for Scriptural Knowledge"!? Oh please...

I crap more reliable information..

I see hawking isn't the only one.

What does the site matter? Its what he said

Period

Argue with spontaneous generation...not the site

He said what he said and he believes in s.g.

Because he's an idiot. Not because a.s.k. says so

But because he believes what he says

Personaly i thought Mr Hawking was smart, but after this i think he is a sponserd joke.

God does not exist as a person,or figure "finite", just like Unicorns and the flying toothfairy dont exist. God is the infinite, God takes up all Space there is, therefor God does not have 8 legs and a long white beard.

You can not Draw a image of God. God is bloody infinite for peat-sake and takes up all Space there is.

If God always was and always is. God must be absolute. God is a absolute constant. Gods time line is a absolute constant. That is the same thing as if there is not time at all. Since God is infinite and absolute, God is also absolute neutral. Neutral dosent mean that God wont pick sides. It means that the inifnite dosent change;; ever.

One of the major differences between finite and the infinite is Time. Finite can never be absolute neutral "Period".

Only a Space that is a absolute constant, absolute empty and absolute neutral, can be absolute infinite. And take up all Space possible.

I dont think you people have the right to blame religion on any basis, because non of you are smart enough.

I think people choose to believe there is more to life because we're too egotistical and hopeful to see that we too, like other things perish and thats it, we don't matter as much as we like to think we do.

I think after death we just go back to the earth, and become part of it until we are used again within the universe, who knows, we're star dust.

reply to post by HerMisfits


I think people believe in god because they want to feel special like they are at the center of the universe but in reality.



That is a bit to hard for them to accept.

Does spirituality even exist?

reply to post by AthlonSavage


I think it does at least as a state of mind.

reply to post by Grimpachi


haha exactly!

It all comes down to fear of seeing what we are. We really are insignificant, our ''miracles'' only seem so big because we are so small.

Our life span is what? 80 years tops! Look at what came before us and what will remain after us, and then truly try to define this god or heaven.

Just think about Present...After death, Nobody don't know about there destiny. Be happy in the present situation. I don;t believe this kind of news.

Grimpachi
reply to post by HerMisfits

 

I think people believe in god because they want to feel special like they are at the center of the universe but in reality.

That is a bit to hard for them to accept.

If we live in an infinite universe

Then our individual consciousness is the point in which infinite is divided into two

Therefore we ( each individual consciousness ) are the center of of our own respective universe

reply to post by Grimpachi



I think it is just the opposite, I wonder at the vastness of the universe and the fact I have a small insignificant place to witness it.

spacedonk

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

www.guardian.co.uk

A belief that heaven or an afterlife awaits us is a "fairy story" for people afraid of death, Stephen Hawking has said.

In a dismissal that underlines his firm rejection of religious comforts, Britain's most eminent scientist said there was nothing beyond the moment when the brain flickers for the final time.

Hawking, who was diagnosed with motor neurone disease at the age of 21, shares his thoughts on death, human purpose and our chance existence in an exclusive interview with the Guardian today.

The incurable illness was expected to kill Hawking within a few years of its symptoms

(visit the link for the full news article)

Boy is he going to be surprised. To think that anything has a final limitation is not science at all. Science teaches that energy can neither be created nor destroyed, only changed. Hmmmm. And then there is the multiverse. And then there is spiritual life force. yet he is going to limit his mind because he's obviously upset at God? That is sad.

Another_Nut

Grimpachi
reply to post by HerMisfits

 

I think people believe in god because they want to feel special like they are at the center of the universe but in reality.

That is a bit to hard for them to accept.

If we live in an infinite universe

Then our individual consciousness is the point in which infinite is divided into two

Therefore we ( each individual consciousness ) are the center of of our own respective universe

By chance did you get your degree from here?

I stopped listening to him long ago. I forget exactly what he stated which caused me to turn away.

I think that he is full of himself. It's tough to see intelligent design, when everyone is filling your ears with the idea that you are 'the one'.

Flattery works on just about everyone. Flattery is SOP with messengers of deception and is a weapon in disguise. It's a killer.

Most persons hear flattery and never consider the cost of believing in it. All they want, once the pump has been primed, is more flattery.

# 131

To be honest and up front.. this character is nothing more than that.. a character here on earth.. he may think he is smart... and many fall for his words.. but he too will soon parish and know the truth.. he may be just as surprised as steve jobs was.. in fact all the non believers will get the ultimate realization soon enough..

reply to post by Grimpachi

Awe

When u can't attack the message

You attack the messenger

Now where have i seen that before?...