To hear this Morning Devotion, please click Zealous to deny God’s existence
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It’s no surprise that Stephen Hawking has rejected God as Creator.
The world-famous theoretical physicist has long rejected the notion of divine involvement in the universe.
But an even more exclusionary declaration has just been issued by Hawking.
His new book, The Grand Design, contends without reservation that God did not create the universe.
When I read an excerpt quoted in a newspaper article, I got the very clear sense that Hawking had departed from the classical Scientific Method that says do the research before declaring that theory is, in fact, reality.
Here is the excerpt:
“Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist,” Hawking writes.
I know that I’m not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but as I read the above statement, it seems that Hawking is saying that the universe created itself even though it didn’t exist.
Hmmmm…..
The last time I checked, cooks prepared meals. The meals didn’t just poof into existence without ingredients and a recipe.
And even if they had, somebody would have had to decide when, where, how and to whom the poofing was to occur.
Creation is no accident.
The stuff needed to set creation’s process in order had to come from somewhere.
And, Mr. Hawking, who created gravity?
And who created the laws of physics? Of math? Of chemistry?
Spontaneous creation? What triggered that?
Who set the threshold that once enough non-created nothingness existed, then it would stop being “nothing” and start being “something,” Mr. Hawking?
In a 1988 book entitled A Brief History, Hawking acknowledged his real goal.
“If we discover a complete theory (for the origin of the universe) , it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason — for then we should know the mind of God,” he wrote.
Hawking said that a 1992 discovery of a planet orbiting another star other than the Sun compelled him toward the mission of disputing the idea that the Earth was carefully designed “just to please us human beings.”
Hawking, who is only able to speak through a computer-generated voice synthesizer, has a neuromuscular dystrophy that has progressed over the years and left him almost completely paralyzed.
I don’t know why Hawking is so ambitious in his efforts to remove the idea of God from the universe’s origins. I also don’t know his view about “God” as it relates to history since the Big Bang.
I find it quite ironic, though, that he wrote earlier of his desire to know the mind of God, to have the emotional/mental thrill of placing human reason on par with the mind of a God that he didn’t want to acknowledge.
Perhaps you see the parallels between Hawking’s statement above and what Satan told Eve in the Garden of Eden.
I’m talking about that moment when Satan said God didn’t want her to eat the forbidden fruit because He “knew” that she’d have the mind of God if she did.
Eve believed Satan rather than God. She believed that rejecting God’s authority and disobeying His Word would display the ultimate triumph of human reason and that she’d discover the complete theory for all of her “Why?” questions.
Eve found out that she was wrong and paid for it with centuries of “Why didn’t I believe God?” regrets, I’m sure.
Of course, mankind has been paying the price of her rebellion and Adam’s rebellion ever since.
I pray for Stephen Hawking to realize his fundamentally illogical assertions and come to the realization that the universe makes no sense without a Creator.
Perhaps, the next time he enjoys a flavorful meal, he think about how the meal didn’t spontaneously create itself.
As always, I love you
Martin
Thanks Martin for a reminder of why some people think the way they do. If you are bent on “proving” that God doesn’t exist, don’t let the facts get into the way.
This is why the Christian creation story has never made sense to me. I’ don’t understand why god would want to discourage curiosity. True, Eve disobeyed a rule, and we all know how important obeying is to religion. But a god with any intelligence and compassion would realize that her ultimate goal (according to you) of pursuing scientific reason was something to encourage, not punish.
I think you misinterpret Hawking’s meaning in his 1988 comment about knowing “the mind of god.” I doubt very much he was referring to the Biblical character (a supernatural being full of jealousy and wrath who is willing to kill his own kids to get attention ). I think he was using the term as a metaphor for all that is great, wonderful, and still mysterious about the universe.
Below is a comment from someone who disagreed with the message of the 9/2/10 Morning Devotion — “The zeal to deny God’s existence”
My response follows the writer’s comments:
This is why the Christian creation story has never made sense to me. I’ don’t understand why god would want to discourage curiosity. True, Eve disobeyed a rule, and we all know how important obeying is to religion. But a god with any intelligence and compassion would realize that her ultimate goal (according to you) of pursuing scientific reason was something to encourage, not punish.
I think you misinterpret Hawking’s meaning in his 1988 comment about knowing “the mind of god.” I doubt very much he was referring to the Biblical character (a supernatural being full of jealousy and wrath who is willing to kill his own kids to get attention ). I think he was using the term as a metaphor for all that is great, wonderful, and still mysterious about the universe.
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I appreciate your taking the time to provide a response and not resort to the stereotypical allegations of my being a religious airhead Bible-thumper.
God does, in fact, encourage curiosity — when it is appropriate and useful for learning. In fact, God used the term, “Come, let us reason together.”
But reasoning together involves reasonable inquiry within responsible parameters. If you were responsible for babysitting a relative’s child and she REALLY wanted to pet the pretty, coral-banded snake in the cage, I doubt that you would say, “Ah, I’m so glad she’s curious and I don’t want to discourage her at all from learning how it feels to be bitten and injected with a fatal dose of venom.”
God’s guard rails around curiosity are intended to protect and are rooted in love, not in control-freak thinking.
I will pray that your understanding of God will evolve away from seeing Him as a supernatural being full of jealousy and wrath who is willing to kill his own kids to get attention. Please remember that Adam and Eve went down a path they had been warned to avoid. They chose the outcome, not God. But, despite their sinful choices, this God that you unfairly diminish, forgave them and blessed them with a long life and an abundance of descendants. He is gracious. To me. To others. And, according to I Peter 2:9 and I John 1:9, to all who will acknowledge Him as their sole/soul reason for hope.
Well written Martin!
Well written Martin! I find it funny how a childlike trust can put the key in the lock when all the intense deep thoughts of the wise and powerful can miss it