Stephen Hawking Says Universe Not Created by God

 Physics, not creator, made Big Bang, new book claims
 Professor had previously referred to 'mind of God'

The Guardian
September 2, 2010
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/sep/02/stephen-hawking-big-bang-creator

God did not create the universe, the man who is
arguably Britain's most famous living scientist says in
a forthcoming book.

In the new work, The Grand Design, Professor Stephen
Hawking argues that the Big Bang, rather than occurring
following the intervention of a divine being, was
inevitable due to the law of gravity.

In his 1988 book, A Brief History of Time, Hawking had
seemed to accept the role of God in the creation of the
universe. But in the new text, co-written with American
physicist Leonard Mlodinow, he said new theories showed
a creator is "not necessary".

The Grand Design, an extract of which appears in the
Times today, sets out to contest Sir Isaac Newton's
belief that the universe must have been designed by God
as it could not have created out of chaos.

"Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe
can and will create itself from nothing," he writes.
"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."

[Continue reading this article at:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2010/sep/02/stephen-hawking-big-bang-creator]

In the forthcoming book, published on 9 September,
Hawking says that M-theory, a form of string theory,
will achieve this goal: "M-theory is the unified theory
Einstein was hoping to find," he theorises.

"The fact that we human beings - who are ourselves mere
collections of fundamental particles of nature - have
been able to come this close to an understanding of the
laws governing us and our universe is a great triumph."

Hawking says the first blow to Newton's belief that the
universe could not have risen from chaos was the
observation in 1992 of a planet orbiting a star other
than our Sun. "That makes the coincidences of our
planetary conditions - the single sun, the lucky
combination of Earth-sun distance and solar mass - far
less remarkable, and far less compelling as evidence
that the earth was carefully designed just to please us
human beings," he writes.

Hawking had previously appeared to accept the role of
God in the creation of the universe, writing in his
bestseller A Brief History Of Time in 1988, he said:
"If we discover a complete theory, it would be the
ultimate triumph of human reason-- for then we should
know the mind of God."

Hawking resigned as Lucasian Professor of Mathematics
at Cambridge University last year after 30 years in the
position.

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About this article Close Stephen Hawking says universe
not created by God This article appeared on p11 of the
Main section section of the Guardian on Thursday 2
September 2010. It was published on guardian.co.uk at
01.56 BST on Thursday 2 September 2010. It was last
modified at 01.57 BST on Thursday 2 September 2010.

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