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Stephen Hawking is smart. He was on The Simpsons. The celebrated British physicist and author Big Banged the argument that God is irrelevant.
Illinois Review's Mark Rhoads did not issue a Fatwah, but offered common sense and a sober nod to the greatest metaphysician of all time - St. Thomas Aquinas.
You see metaphysics* has trumped physics, from the time that Aristotle was a sophomore.
By Mark Rhoads
Steve Hawking vs. Tom Aquinas
There's little doubt that Cambridge Math Professor Stephen Hawking is one of the most prominent theoretical physicists of the last 75 years. But that distinction does not guarantee his infallibility as a philsopher or even gurantee that he always shows common sense. In his new book on Grand Design, Hawking's co-author Leonard Mlodinow is careful to say their book does not claim that God does not exist, but only that God is "not necessary" to explain creation. As Seth Meyers and Amy Poehler on Saturday Night Live Weekend Update might say, Really? Really Mr. Mlodinow?
Hawking rejects the answer of Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) who said that God was the Creator or in Latin the Prima Causa or first cause who was the unmoved mover or uncaused cause of other events in the chain of creation and evolution. Hawking explained to that great deep thinker Larry King of all people that "gravity" is the first cause." Really? Gravity just always existed even in the void? Gravity is not nothing and yet Hawking agrees the universe came from nothing. Does Hawking think that "gravity" or "quantum physics" is the Creator responsible for what Hawking calls "spontaneous creation?" No, not exactly, but he points in that direction. In his field, Hawking is brilliant. But like all scientists who face the mystery of creation, he must wander far outside his field with dubious results.
AMDG, Mark!
*
Metaphysics is a branch of philosophy concerned with explaining the fundamental nature of being and the world although it is not easily defined. Someone who studies metaphysics would be called either a metaphysicist[3] or a metaphysician.
The word derives from the Greek words μετά (metá) (meaning "beyond" or "after") and φυσικά (physiká) (meaning "physical"), "physical" referring to those works on matter by Aristotle in antiquity. The prefix meta- ("beyond") was attached to the chapters in Aristotle's work that followed after the chapters on "physics," in posthumously edited collections. Aristotle himself did not call these works Metaphysics. Aristotle called some of the subjects treated there "first philosophy
IMHO, Hawking deliberately misses the easiest path of all to proving that God does not exist - proving that there is no such thing as human consciousness. As I understand Hawking's proof, he says, "If you grant me my source of the Big Bang, I can take it all from there."
ReplyDeleteIf you can go with Hawking that way, a far, far simpler statement is this: "I already know the origin of human life - it is the fertilization of an egg. I can take it all from there." By doing this, Hawking destroys God because he turns you, me and him into automatons. There's no point to God without free will. In fact, it doesn't matter if He exists or not since there's nothing we can do about it.
So why doesn't he go this easier route? Because he's not interested in discussing God, per se. He likes being on TV and talking to people like Larry King while being treated royally. If he truly believed in what he's saying, he would know that it's a total waste of time. He's just one arbitrary sack of subatomic particles talking to another arbitrary sack of subatomic particles.
What do you think of that?
Thanks for posting this. I'll be popping back over to read more of your blog. Stop by The Scratching Post some time and let me know what you think of my ramblings.
PHILOSOPHIA PERENNIS.
ReplyDeleteThe Old Lady’s TORTOISE (Hinduism) and DRAGON (Taoism) are symbols for WAVE (energy), both are analog with MAGEN DAVID (Judaism). "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" is the metaphor, and also similar with allegory of rituals Thawaf circling around the Ka'ba and Sa’i oscillating along “the sinus” Marwah-Shafa (seven times) during the Hajj pilgrimage (Abraham). CROSS (Christian) and SWASTIKA (Buddhism) are symbols for “Balance of Nature.”
"A BRIEF HISTORY OF TIME - From the Big Bang to Black Hole" by Stephen W. Hawking is the best scientific interpretation of AL QUR'AN by a non believer. It is a “test case” and also a “genuine bridge stone” for comprehensive study of Theology. Surprise, this paradox is a miracle and blessing in disguise as well. It should be very wise and challenging for Moslem scholars and others to verify my discovery, for then we should know the Mind of GOD.
I am just “ordinary people,” so would you mind correcting my point of view. Thank you.
Please, see pictures: http://neosufi-tato.blogspot.com