September 7, 2010

Jewish, Christian and Muslin leaders have all rejected claims that belief in the divine has been disproved following the assertion by British physicist Stephen Hawking that science leaves no role for God in the creation of the Universe.

In his new book, The Grand Design, Mr Hawking says, “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. It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the Universe going.”

In a previous book, A Brief History of Time, Mr Hawking had written that finding a theory for creation would be humanity’s greatest achievement, “for then we should know the mind of God”.

In response to Mr Hawking’s latest book, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, said in an article in The Times newspaper, “Belief in God is not about plugging a gap in explaining how one thing relates to another within the universe. It is the belief that there is an intelligent, living agent on whose activity everything ultimately depends for its existence. Physics on its own will not settle the question on why there is something rather than nothing.”

Britain’s chief rabbi, Jonathan Sacks, stated, “Science is about explanation. Religion is about interpretation. The Bible simply isn’t interested in how the Universe came into being.”

A Brief History of Time remained on the British and U.S. bestseller charts for almost four years. The Grand Design has been co-written by Mr Hawking and the US physicist, Leonard Mlodinow.

Until his retirement in 2009, Mr Hawking was Lucasian professor of mathematics at Cambridge University, the same post that was once held by Isaac Newton.

Ibrahim Mogra, the chairperson of the interfaith committee of the Muslim Council of Britain, said, “If we look at the Universe and all that has been created, it indicates that somebody has been here to bring it into existence. That somebody is the almighty creator.”

George Ellis, an emeritus professor at South Africa’s University of Cape Town and a past president of the International Society for Science and Religion, told reporters, “My biggest problem with [Hawking’s theory] is that it’s presenting the public with a choice: science or religion. A lot of people will say, ‘OK, I choose religion, then’, and it is science that will loose out.”

In June, Mr Hawking said he did not believe that a “personal” God existed, theDaily Telegraph newspaper reported. He told a television program, “The question is: is the way the universe began, chosen by God for reasons we can’t understand, or was it determined by a law of science? I believe the second. If you like, you can call the laws of science ‘God’, but it wouldn’t be a personal God that you could meet, and ask questions.”

Trevor Grundy, ENI

http://news.nsw.uca.org.au/2010/hawkings_07-09-2010.htm

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Comment from a Facebook friend:

Paul wrote:

“I am a physicist and I think that if faith can be effected by the theories of physics, then there is something wrong with that faith.

Faith should in no way be dependent upon theories of physics, but should be valid no matter what physics is saying. And should also be able to be valid without going against what physics says. Faith should not rely on how physics explains the universe or on backing one theory against another. It will just look foolish when the theories are refined or changed.”

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Ian Hore-Lacy wrote:

“The surprising thing in UK was the prominence given to all this last week by The TImes – 2 days front page headlines in a row. But the editorialising was rubbish. They did give reasonable prominence to rebuttals showing that he was talking nonsense.

Meanwhile science does wonderfully unpack more about the origins of cosmos and life, strongly supporting a faith position!”