Steven Hawking
 

We all can believe what we want.


Atheist Stephen Hawking claims to know that God does not exist - National Worldview and Science | Examiner.com

Re: Steven Hawking
 

Most scientists are atheist, no surprise.
The concept of believing in something based on "faith" and therefore not being able to actually prove existence goes against scientific thought.

See anything on you-tube from Lawrence Krauss or Richard Dawkins.

But to each his own.

Re: Steven Hawking
 

To each is own is right.

Re: Steven Hawking
 

That's the thing that always bothered me, some atheists are as bad as the religious types that come to your door with their efforts to "convert" you to their way of thinking.

Want to know what I believe? I believe in respecting someone else's right to their own belief.

Re: Steven Hawking
 

The funny thing is evolution and the birth of our universe are backed by theories and a theory is not fact but a belief,therefore it takes faith to belive in a theory. So, it seems that people who have faith in God are no different than those who have faith in atheism. What i find interesting is there are a lot of scientists who actually believe in a "higher power". Albert Einstein was one of them. I have yet to find someone who can prove that there isn't a God.

Re: Steven Hawking
 

Everyone's just jockeying for position, :) ...

Re: Steven Hawking
 

I can't say that this is the case. Most scientists don't have the spine to state their beliefs publicly, not that they need to. Consider that if they say they don't believe in God they are persecuted by religious fundamentalists. If they state that they believe in God they are persecuted by academic atheists who will try and ruin their careers. Look to the global warming inquisition for an example.

Re: Steven Hawking
 

I'd think scientists would all believe in the creator.

Its not logical that all of the Universe came from nothing.

Its here, therefore it has to have been created.

Re: Steven Hawking
 

That's true. One of the main beliefs of scientists is that something cannot come from nothing which contradicts a lot of their theories. Mr. Hawking mentioned recently that he was wrong on what he thought he knew about black holes....why should I believe what he says now? Give him a few years and he'll change his mind again.

Re: Steven Hawking
 

I recently read a pretty good little book called "The Origin Of The Universe". It was written in such a way that made it possible for non-cosmologists to have a shot at grasping things from this moment back to the singularity and how things must have transpired to place things as they are.

In some scenarios we (meaning our Galaxy as much as we meaning people) are one of many and in others, arrived at by changing some very small measure of some thing or other in the first microseconds (and much much smaller measures of time) post big bang, we are purely miraculous.

I also recently finished another book, "Zealot", which confirmed much of what I've always suspected but had fallen victim to the construct that is organized religion.

That I read a book about Jimmi Hendrix in between reading these other two might seem relevant but it is not.

Point is, I've had this sort of thing on my mind a bit lately. So I found it shocking to see what the Pope said. That was HUGE - I'm amazed it didn't get more press. I know other Popes (I'm not Catholic, forgive me) have touched on it and danced around it and even next to it, but what was said a few days ago was something I'd really hoped to hear all my adult life.

But my Paw Paw said it best in a letter he left to the family that was read at his funeral. About God he said there was no doubt that for him there WAS a God. He noted that he came to this conclusion while sitting on a log in the woods squirrel hunting...and listening...and was overwhelmed at the sounds and the things around him and figured it just couldn't have happened by accident.

People get too bent up on Jesus, The Father, Son of Man/Son of God, makeup, rock-n-roll, cutting hair, wearing pants, eating crackers and drinking wine, praying in the proper direction at the right time of day, flying planes into buildings or oh, I don't know, the inquisition!?!

Silliness in my opinion.

That God created Heaven and Earth, to me, is accurate. That he did so by setting things in motion with a "big bang" as opposed to the fantastical stories in the Bible written by men wandering around in a desert, often alone, hearing voices, and having their stories documented well after the "fact" by people whom they never knew...not to mention From Greek to Hebrew to Arabic to Latin the finally to English, and not necessarily in that order...

You get what I mean.

Evolution just makes sense, in whatever form it took from the beginning of time to now. God, I believe, most definitely DOES exist, and if Jesus were here among us today he might tell us all, "God gave us brains and expects us to USE them."

That's my .02

Re: Steven Hawking
 

I'm a Catholic, biologist with numerous grad-level courses in speciation, evolution, paleobiology, etc. My under-grad major professor, who taught evolution, used to invite priests and ministers to class to "debate" the issue of evolution. The Catholic priests were no fun because the Church had basically signed off on evolution, even back then in the 1970's. The fundamentalists told us that fossils were buried in the ground by the devil to confuse man and if we believed in evolution we were all going to hell.

One of my sister-in-laws married a member of the Church of Christ. We used to have fun debating the issue of creation, but finally we had to declare a truce since neither of us were going to change our position.

I always got/get a kick out of fundamentalists who are willing to "interpret" some passages of the Old Testament, but insist on reading others (Creation) literally. I guess they are just more comfortable with having criminals in the blood line a few generations back (don't we all) than having monkeys in the blood line a million years ago. Go figure.

My point when debating my brother-in-law was that you have to remember that the Old Testament was written over 2000 year ago for a people who had absolutely no understanding of any of the sciences. A good author always keeps the "grade level" of the reader in mind. Taking this into consideration, it is really amazing how close some of the "principals" of the story of Creation come to current theories of astronomy and evolution.

Re: Steven Hawking
 

If you've ever heard a skilled bible scholar debate an atheist, its pretty overwhelming. The Bible scholars are rarely invited back on these liberal shows after they totally annihilate the atheist's point of view.

I'm just an ordinary guy, but I'm thoroughly convinced of the following...

God created everything.
Man betrayed God, allowing evil into the world
God allowed man salvation through Christ

Pretty much all I need.

Re: Steven Hawking
 

I don't think either side will find much common ground to be honest. Both sides are cemented in there views and rightly so. I sit somewhere in the middle and am unsure what I believe. So long as no side try pushing there views on me im in the believe what you want and ill respect you for it.

Re: Steven Hawking
 

9 Then God commanded, “Let the water below the sky come together in one place, so that the land will appear”—and it was done. 10 He named the land “Earth,” and the water which had come together he named “Sea.” And God was pleased with what he saw. 11 Then he commanded, “Let the earth produce all kinds of plants, those that bear grain and those that bear fruit”—and it was done. 12 So the earth produced all kinds of plants, and God was pleased with what he saw. 13 Evening passed and morning came—that was the third day.

Mystery of Earth's Water Origin Solved

Just maybe?

Re: Steven Hawking
 

I believe we are the universe slowly becoming conscious of itself. Evolution was required to get to where are today. We are now in a position to think consciously and push evolution to where it was intended. What that is, I am not sure of but Andrew Cohen had a great attempt to explain it in his book Evolutionary Enlightenment.

Re: Steven Hawking
 

Not only written 2000 years ago, but, definitely not written in English. None of us have any idea what was lost in the translation.