Posted on 12/22/2011 4:54:48 PM PST by WilliamIII
The world's most famous physicist Prof. Stephen Hawking has declared that God does not exist.
Hawking joins the opinion of several other world-class scientists like Richard Dawkins, Peter Atkins, James Watson, Victor Stenger and many others who deny the existence of God in the name of the latest advancements in physics, biology and other scientific domains. The so-called "New Atheism" (championed by Richard Dawkins) sees God as a delusion, a by product of the mind of superstitious and scientifically uneducated people. "Because there is a law like 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 and why we are here". This is the conclusion of The Grand Design, Hawking's latest book.
...Hawking states that a "law of gravity" exists and this (not God) creates the universe. Hawking surely also believes that gravity itself exists (since a law of gravity without "gravity" to describe would be meaningless). Now, if we say that X creates Y, we must presuppose the existence of X in the first place to bring Y into existence. Likewise, we must presuppose the existence of gravity to bring the universe into existence.
But Einstein's theory of relativity shows that this is illogical because it is like saying that gravity existed "before time" which is absurd. Did gravity spontaneously generate itself then?
(Excerpt) Read more at ph.news.yahoo.com ...
But his knowledge is quite limited, mostly to math and cosmology. As either a philosopher or theologist he is very very much over his head. As is Dawkins.
It's a shame really. In times past there used to be great debates on this topic by folks who were equally matched.
Imagine a symphony, a grand symphony. Every note, exquisite, infinitely complex, and yet perfect in every way. Melodies are completely satisfying, everything works in a seemless, unimaginable way.
Now imagine this symphony coming into existence without a composer. Poof, the sheet music just appeared one day.
Doesn’t sound plausible to me.
I disagree
Read the Science of God by Gerald Schroeder. Dr. Schroder earned his B.S.,M.S., and PhD in Physics from the Mass. Institute of Technology. He reminds us how rich is our science and how true the Bible.
That's what I wanted to say! Hawkings is a legend in his own mind, similar to Obama thinking he's one of the best four presidents of all time. Simply delusional. I've read some of Hawkings work, much of which is done by his handlers who "interpret" his mutterings. As such, Hawkings does not exist. He is a blithering dreamer, lost in a make-believe universe in his mind.
"...Hawking states that a "law of gravity" exists and this (not God) creates the universe."
Hawking the atheist has no explanation for and cannot give an account of those things which are necessary for rationality itself; namely, universal, invariant, abstract entities.
The laws of logic are not material in nature - they do not extend into space. As universal, they are not experienced to be true. As invariant, they don't fit into what materialists like Steven Hawking tell us about the constantly changing nature of the universe. Since an atheist universe cannot account for the laws of logic in the first place, Hawking has no rational basis for his claims about laws, of gravity or any other kind.
Cordially,
I don’t have the faith it would take to be an atheist.
Well and truly stated ... as usual.
Neither do I.
If you can't appreciate the pure beauty of the violin after hearing this, something's wrong with your ears.
Or you can get raw with these strings.
How about this gamechanger from America's Got Talent (which they SHOULD have won).
Either way, the violin is sweet yet lethal.
Do it!
I just saw a corvette today. If it didn’t come from a tornado, where did it come from?
I come from five generations of Lutheran ministers.
Faith - not rational analysis - is the foundation of religious belief.
“Free Will” is a fundamental part of Lutheran doctrine.
Yet, man has been denied the ultimate act of “Free Will.”
Man has no choice as to whether he will - or will not - exist.
God makes that decision, and places a man’s soul inside the helpless body of an infant who has no power to control external circumstances or to even think rationally.
True “Free Will” would require that God ask each man whether he does - or does not - wish to be created.
It also requires that the man has the judgment, knowledge, and life experience of a mature adult, not an infant.
Many people would choose to be created.
Personally, I wouldn’t gamble with my life or my soul, and I would choose not to be born.
Lutheran doctrine also emphatically states that God is all powerful and all knowing.
Once again, rationally, this violates “Free Will.”
If God is my creator, but God also knows everything I will do or believe in my life, then God knows whether or not my soul will go to Hell - BEFORE he creates me.
Ouch!
A God that willfully creates souls he knows will spend all eternity in Hell?
That’s not rational.
Question: is the thing that God executed, according to Luther, the free will of the individual, or predermination [sic] to hell? If you could indicate from these verses, I would be grateful.Both guys devised a theology that they wanted to believe protects God's holiness and righteousness but just ended up making God into an a-hole. Judging from the way they dealt with their adversaries, their theology was probably more an example of projection than it was anything else. Though it may be rational in some systems of thought to believe in God, that's not the case with Calvin or Luther.
The thing that God executed, according to Luther in the selection I quoted, is every single thing that has, does, or ever will exist. In the selection I quoted earlier from The Bondage of the Will, written when Calvin was a young teen, Luther declared:1. that there was no will but God’s willThis is iron-hard determinism that substantively is no different than what Calvin, then 14, would later develop with bigger tail fins, and massive chrome bumpers and grills. Luther's appeal to theological determinism probably had more to do with his polemical needs at the moment in his battle with Erasmus. I’m sure that later, upon reflection, Luther probably thought something along these lines:
…by this thunderbolt, Freewill is struck to the earth and completely ground to powder….
2. that the appearance of contingency is an illusion
…all which we do, and all which happens, although it seem to happen mutably and contingently, does in reality happen necessarily and unalterably, insofar as respects the will of God. [emphasis added]
3. that everything in creation that happens involving man or apart from man is a product of God’s will
Hence it irresistibly follows, that all which we do [everything in which man has a part], and all which happens… [everything else in creation] does in reality happen necessarily and unalterably, insofar as respects the will of God.
4. that God is not limited either in will or in knowledge
If God does not foreknow all events absolutely, there must be defect either in his will, or in his knowledge ; what happens must either be against his will, or beside his knowledge
5. that everything that has happened since creation and that God is executing now in creation is identical with what God had planned since before the beginning of creation and had yet to execute at the time of creation
But the truth is, what he willed in past eternity, he wills now; the thing now executed is what he has intended to execute from everlasting; for his will is eternal: just as the thing which has now happened is what he saw in past eternity; because his knowledge is eternal.“Oh, crap. This makes everything in human existence and even in scripture that appears to depend on contingency, or choice, a complete illusion within a totally deterministic universe where even my thoughts about illusion, determinism, and choice are determined, and even worse than that because what would have been the point of it all to begin with? For God’s praise and glory? Praise and glory from whom? From some sort of intra-trinitarian blackslapping? Or from automata who, like the cuckoo popping out of the clock on the hour, say “Praise and glory. Praise and glory” with no more awareness or understanding or will than the wooden cuckoo has of clock-making and timekeeping?”
Of course you would.
If I were a troll, I’d say it was just the way I was made, too.
SFL.
Well said!
A better question is: is it rational to behave as a Christian?
Historically, people who are fat, dumb and happy eschew religion, in the same way they eschew hard work, morality and everything honorable. Unfortuately, people are at their best only when times are hard, and they’re ruined by prosperity.
Thanks for your essay.
I haven’t read deeply into Luther.
I didn’t realize he dealt so thoroughly with questions about determinism.
Loved your description of “cuckoo clock” style worship, another issue I’ve thought about frequently.
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