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

"We should seek the greatest value of our action."

Whether he believes in afterlife or not, I really like his statement above, and hope people take from that, make the best of your life now, not act in anticipation of what it will bring you in afterlife no one has any idea truly exists and how it exists.

this old sap is still elaborating on his rosy outlook of life? first he states there is no creator and that aliens dont exist now that hes dying. And now hes saying there is no heaven, who the hell pissed in his cereal lol?

quite irrelevant statements to be making when somebody is nearing the final stages of mortality. quite selfish and immature if you ask me. it took you your whole life to make such a grim few claims? cry me a river hawking

This is just one of those pointless comments by Stephen Hawking.
How would he know what lies beyond death?
Does anyone really know? (please God botherers, don't reply to that, I know what you're going to say)
Why should his "belief" be considered factual?
Does he have any evidence to support his theory or is he just blowing steam out his colostomy tube?

reply to post by spacedonk


How utterly ridiculous. I'm not afraid of death, and I believe in Heaven for various reasons, many of which involve scientific understanding.

This man seems to think that he has some sort of pseudo-spiritual authority to speak on these matters. He should stick to dealing with the marvels of this universe. He obviously has some kind of personal gripe with the Universe if he feels he must seek to trash other people's dearly held beliefs in this way.

Also, can he be serious, given the recent scientific developments concerning our understanding of hyperspace, multi-dimensionality, 'dark matter', quantum weirdness, and the EM properties of consciousness, to say that there is no possibility that consciousness and personality persist in some form after the 'death' of our genetic spacesuits?

ARGH! What is wrong with these pseudo-skeptical 'scientists'..? One day History will recognise them as the closed-minded flat-earthers they truly are.

reply to post by zazzafrazz


How he can claim that by making stupid (yes, stupid) UNSCIENTIFIC statements that aim to trash the dearly held beliefs of others is -

''...seek[ing] the greatest value of our action."

I have no idea. I hadn't realised he was nearing death, but really, I don't know. What a tool.

Just because you're Steven Hawking doesn't mean people won't call you a tool when you act like a tool.

Ahh. Good 'ol Hawkings.

Aside from his scientific contribution, he's a complete ass.

Going by credentials and scientific accomplishments, Hawking probably has a much more thorough understanding of the universe and the realm of physics than most of you here.

He has every right to say that heaven doesn't exist, and that god doesn't exist, etc.

Where is the viable evidence that such things exist, tell me....

Can we measure it? Can we replicate it? Are the results consistent? Does it satisfy the scientific method by any means? His stance on this issue is no different than someone who refuses to believe in Zeus or Tartarus.

So far I just see a bunch of butt-hurt replies, but still nothing substantial. I guess you expect him to retract his statements for your convenience, just as the religious right expect science to bend to their will.

reply to post by onequestion

Do you remember what life, the world, and universe were like before you were born?

That's exactly what death's like. Don't worry,we've all been there before, we're all going there again. Have a good time while you're here, because there is nothing after this.

Nothing, what-so-ever.

Originally posted by thePharaoh
well...i guess we should turn off his machine then......

edit on 15-5-2011 by thePharaoh because: i was too rude

Spoken like a true "God-fearing" Christian. Don't like his opinion, then threaten their murder to put the fear back in them, to force them to either think your way, or at least shut up.

There is no God. There is no after life.

There is only this life. And then there is nothing.

And if you disagree, I would never threaten you with death, unlike you.

I can't believe the OP had less than a handful of stars before I read it.

We are living in heaven already people, start enjoying it!

If you want to make a hell of it you may make hell of it.

The only ones who know where you go when you die are dead and they can't talk to us.

Originally posted by space cadet
reply to post by SaturnFX

 

Invisible Unicorns in the middle of the ocean does not compare to faith. It is not documented and passed down through generations that Invisible Unicorns exsist in the middle of the ocean.

A lie written down 2000 years ago and passed down through the generations does not make it (as if by magic) the truth. A lie believed by 1 billion, 5 billion, 100 billion people does not make it the truth. A lie, no matter how charming it may sound, no matter how much it warms your heart, is still a lie.

A lie told to you by your parents, your family, your preacher, your friends, your teachers....is still a lie.

If you believe *anything* for any of the reasons above, then you aren't *thinking*, you are *feeling*.

reply to post by anumohi


But then you never got a chance to return (to this world) to tell the tale.

Oh no, he did calculated it didn't he?
Don't be fooled with this speaking head. He hates his body, life and God. That's what his head is full of. Actually he seem's to be very religious person inside. Such modern version of Job. It's his fight against Him.
If you believe you are body you will live and die as a body.

reply to post by spacedonk


How sad for Stephen Hawkings that he does not have any spiritual discernment. But that is something that cannot be taught, spiritual understanding transcends the rational part of the brain.

What an excellent example of how intellectual brilliance is not the same thing as wisdom.

He doesn't understand that Heaven & Hell are states of consciousness.

Hawkings has had a bitter life -- denied bodily joys.

Hopefully, when he leaves his mortal coil, it will be as if he has been released from prison.

Maybe he'll have a happier incarnation next time.

all i have to say to that is NDE. there is a well documented case of a woman who was frozen to death (zero brainwaves) so that they could fix a brain aneurysm. after they revived her, she told them what they had done to her because she viewed it from the ceiling. zero brainwaves...that means she was dead. not just lacking pulse, but totally brain dead. science doesn't have an answer as to how she could remember that.

that is evidence we are more than biological machines. we are souls who have biological machines.

reply to post by Cryptonomicon

There is no God. There is no after life.

There is only this life. And then there is nothing.

Oh, and you're sure of this? Or is this just some "feeling" you have? Seems like another claim by someone that has no proof.

Looks to me like both you and Christians share a similar way of thinking.

God need to prioritze his first mission on Earth is to visit Stephen Hawking.

I'll just read that opinion as "I don't believe in an afterlife" rather than a scientific fact.

"I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark," he added.

I also regard the brain as a computer but also believe in a user who operates that computer and moves on after it stops working. I'm somewhat afraid of people who do not believe in a user as they don't program their machine but get programmed by whatever programming their machine encounters. People like that have their lights on but nobody is home, they seem to be growing in numbers everyday probably thanks to the new scienitifc paradigm "there is nothing else but the material world". We don't have to worry about AI taking over the world in the future, by then religion will be extinct and we'll all be biological droids unable to imagine outside the box anymore either.

Originally posted by Cryptonomicon
reply to post by onequestion

 

Do you remember what life, the world, and universe were like before you were born?

That's exactly what death's like. Don't worry,we've all been there before, we're all going there again. Have a good time while you're here, because there is nothing after this.

Nothing, what-so-ever.

Do you remember what you were doing may 3rd your first year of birth? Nope, but you existed.

Im def more on the deist side of things I follow no organized man made religion...Not everyone who believes their is a higher power believes its some invisible man in the sky controlling our every affair. And does having a afterlife really need a God? Couldn't the soul be natural and the survival of it be a natural process as someone else mentioned?

Either way my idea of God is not someone who tosses a pebble into a pond, and sets up a bunch of random ripples, but rather as, say, a game designer who lays out the rules and watches things play out, or a playwright who builds the sets and writes the script but doesn't jump onstage to control where the actors actually take the show. God is the computer programmer who wrote the language, made the scripts compiled them and hit the enter key.. Thats my view.

Hawkings has said a lot of things lately about aliens, god etc for some reason. Attention maybe? I dunno.
But all are just opinions and no better than some random high school drop outs opinions cause he doesn't know and is just stating his unprovable views like the rest of us.

Hawking like the rest of us doesn't have a clue. The human ego, which does exist keeps a lot of people from simply stating.

'Damn it, I/we dont know"