Stephen Hawking died Wednesday, 14 March 2018, at age 76
Stephen Hawking’s Views on God
Jamie Ducharme • Time • March 14, 2018
Stephen Hawking Was an Atheist.
Here’s What He Said About God, Heaven and His Own Death:
For more than 50 years, death was a poignant part of Stephen Hawking’s remarkable life. The physicist, who died Wednesday at age 76, wasn’t expected to see his 25th birthday, after being diagnosed with the incurable neurodegenerative condition ALS at age 21. Though Hawking beat the odds for more than five decades, the scientist told the Guardian in 2011 that death was never far from his mind. “I have lived with the prospect of an early death for the last 49 years,” Hawking said. “I’m not afraid of death, but I’m in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first.”
Here are some of Hawking’s most interesting thoughts about death, the afterlife and God:
Hawking didn’t believe in heaven
The scientist took a pragmatic view of what happens to the brain and body after death.
“I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail,” he told the Guardian. “There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark.”
He believed in an ‘impersonal God,’ but not a creator
Hawking invoked the name of God in his seminal book A Brief History of Time, writing that if physicists could find a “theory of everything” — that is, a cohesive explanation for how the universe works — they would glimpse “the mind of God.”
But in later interviews and writings, such as 2010’s The Grand Design, which he co-wrote with Leonard Mlodinow, Hawking clarified that he wasn’t referring to a creator in the traditional sense.
“Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist,” he wrote in The Grand Design. “It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going.”
Using language about God, Hawking told TIME after the book’s release, is more figurative than literal.
“God is the name people give to the reason we are here,” he said. “But I think that reason is the laws of physics rather than someone with whom one can have a personal relationship. An impersonal God.”
Hawking considered himself an atheist
Hawking spoke more plainly about his thoughts on God in an interview with Spanish publication El Mundo.
“Before we understand science, it is natural to believe that God created the universe. But now science offers a more convincing explanation,” he said. “What I meant by ‘we would know the mind of God’ is, we would know everything that God would know, if there were a God, which there isn’t. I’m an atheist.”
But still thought the universe had meaning
Though Hawking rejected the conventional notion of God or a creator, he fundamentally believed that the universe and life have meaning, according to the New York Times.
“Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Try to make sense of what you see and wonder about what makes the universe exist,” Hawking said of the meaning of life. “Be curious. And however difficult life may seem, there is always something you can do and succeed at.”
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THE BLIND SCIENTISTS
The following conversation between His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and some of his disciples took place in December of 1973, during a morning walk at Venice Beach, Los Angeles.
Devotee: The scientists say their power of reason tells them there’s no God. They say if you believe in God it’s strictly a matter of faith.
Srila Prabhupada: It is not a matter of faith—it is fact.
Devotee: When scientists say “fact,” they mean something they can perceive through their senses.
Srila Prabhupada: Yes, and in Krsna consciousness we can perceive God through our senses. The more we engage our senses in devotional service—service to God—the more we are able to perceive Him. Hrsikena hrsikesa-sevanam bhaktir ucyate: “When one engages his senses in service to the Supreme, that relationship is called bhakti [devotion].” For example, we use our legs to walk to the temple, and our tongue to glorify God and eat prasada [“the Lord’s mercy,” vegetarian food offered to Krsna].
Devotee: But the scientists say these are acts of faith. They say that when we offer food to God, it’s only our faith that makes us think God accepts it. They say they can’t see Him eating.
Srila Prabhupada: They cannot see, but I can see. I am not a fool like them. They are spiritually blind—suffering from cataracts—ignorance. If they come to me, I shall operate, and then they’ll see God also.
Devotee: Well, the scientists want to see God now.
Srila Prabhupada: But Krsna will not reveal Himself to them now, because they’re rascals—big animals. sva-vid-varaha ustra-kharaih samstutah purusah pasuh: “Anyone who’s not a devotee of God is just a big animal—a big camel or a big dog or a big swine—and the people who praise him are the same.”
Devotee: They say we’re just dreamers—that we make up fantasies about God and the spiritual world.
Srila Prabhupada: Why do they say “fantasies”? They have no brain to understand—so they say “fantasies.”
Devotee: Well, their standard of objectivity is what they can perceive through their senses.
Srila Prabhupada: Yes, they can perceive God through their senses. When they perceive sand through their senses, who do they think made the sand? They didn’t. When they perceive the ocean through. their senses, who do they think made that? Why are they such fools that they don’t understand this?
Devotee: They say that if God made these things, they’d be able to see Him, just as they can see the ocean.
Srila Prabhupada: And I say to them, “Yes, you can see God—but first you have to have the eyes. You are blind; you have cataracts. Come to me and I will operate. Then you’ll see God.” This is why the Vedic scriptures say, tad-vijnanartham gurum eva abhigacchet:
“To see God, you must approach a bona fide spiritual master.” Otherwise, how can they see God with their blind eyes?
Devotee: But the scientists don’t have any faith in the kind of seeing you’re talking about. The only kind of seeing they put any faith in is what they can gather through their eyes and their microscopes and telescopes.
Srila Prabhupada: Why? If you look up in the sky now, you will think it is vacant. But it is not vacant—your eyes are deficient. There are innumerable planet and stars in the sky, but you cannot see them—you are blind to them. So just because you cannot see the stars and planets, does this mean they do not exist?
Devotee: The scientists admit they’re ignorant about some things. But still they won’t accept your explanation of things they can’t see with their own eyes.
Srila Prabhupada: Why not?
Devotee: Because they think that what you tell them may be wrong.
Srila Prabhupada: That is their misfortune. Our gross senses cannot approach God. To know Him we have to hear from an authority—that is the process for gaining higher knowledge.
Devotee: But that step requires faith. Faith in the guru.
Srila Prabhupada: Not faith—common sense! If you want to learn medicine, you have to go to an expert physician. You cannot learn it by yourself.
Devotee: Srila Prabhupada, from all you’ve said, it’s obvious we can support our ideas as well as the atheistic scientists can support theirs. But they’re in control of society. They’re dominant.
Srila Prabhupada: Dominant? [Laughs.] One kick from maya [Krsna’s material energy] and all their “dominance” is finished in one second. They are controlled by maya,, but they are thinking that they are free. This is foolishness.
Devotee: They don’t want to come to their senses.
Srila Prabhupada: Therefore they are rascals. A rascal is someone who will insist he’s right even after you have proved he’s wrong. He will never take a good lesson. And why do they remain rascals? na mam duskrtino mudhah: because they are duskrtina—very, very sinful. Don’t you see how they are making a world of slaughterhouses and brothels; how they are ruining everyone’s life by promoting sensual enjoyment? These are all sinful activities. And because the scientists are so sinful, they will have to suffer in the darkest regions of hell. In their next life they’ll become worms in stool. Yet out of ignorance they are thinking they are safe.
Hawking was just a theoretical speculator, who must have come from a very sinful past life to end up with that body. Now because of his atheistic views he is worshiped virtually as God by the Godless society!
Of the four classes of duskrtinas, the mayayapahrta-jnana with imperfect senses is especially dangerous, as they have the ability to influence people in general, who place them on a lofty pedestal.
Srila Prabhupada explains in his Bhaktivedanta Purport BG 7.15
” The next class of duskrtina is called mayayapahrta-jnana, or those persons whose erudite knowledge has been nullified by the influence of the illusory material energy. They are mostly very learned fellows- great philosophers, poets, literati, scientists, etc.- but the illusory energy misguides them, and therefore they disobey the Supreme Lord.
There are a great number of mayayapahrta-jnanis at the present moment, even amongst the scholars of the Gita.”
I would certainly put the ‘Theoretical Physicists’ firmly in this category of duskrtinas and Hawking at the top of the pile over at the Kolkata rubbish tip! Definitely a spot there also for the other famous theoretician, Darwin!
Yfs,
Balaram das.
Pamho
agtacbsp.
this is a fool world and we dont belong to this nasty material world therefore we are considered aliens by the vedic culture.
its a uncivilsed society of biped citizens called kali chelas.
this is the madness of someone who got krsna as the best friend but they dont care because they are mudhas super donkey vidya kule ki koribe tar all their so called knowledge and power got stolen by illusion but still fools only call bcs gkg etc… maharaj still ….and we say struggle with maha maya now maharaj go to hide yourself
agtsp
ys haribol
Some of Hawking’s books he co-authored with atheist Jew Leonard Mlodinow, who was also a material scientist. Srila Prabhupada was very critical of these demonic, Godless, material scientists who he considered fools and rascals! German material scientists, many Nazi war criminals and concentration camp murderers were recruited by the USA after WW2. They were recruited into the aerospace industry and NASA. Some of these scumbags had murdered and tortured hundreds of prisoners in cruel “experiments”, but were given immunity from prosecution.
Around half of Jews don’t believe in God and of these the most demonic are Zionists. The term Nazi is derived from the “NA” in National Socialism and “ZI” from Zionism. Hitler was aided and funded by Rothschild Zionists (Kuhn and Loeb) and American bankers like Rockerfeller, Warburg, and JP Morgan and also Ford, Harrimans, (Prescott Bush) and many others.
Ilan Papp’e (Israeli historian) said…..
“Most Zionists don’t believe God exists, but they do believe that He promised them Palestine!”
The word “Nazi” is an abbreviation for the word “Nationalsozialist”.
The full name of the political party was the “Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei” – the National Socialist German Worker’s Party.
Yes, that’s true. Thank you for that! These names, signs, symbols have double meanings also as they are tools of The Illuminati. Within the framework of the Illuminati it is all symbolism and a fascination with numbers, dates, geometric signs, monuments, statues, ”opposites”, hand gestures, and rituals.
Socialism, communism, ”workers party” (also fascism, liberalism, feminism, etc) as explained in “The Protocols of the learned Elders of Sion” are all part and parcel of their manifestation and doctrine of Global control and brutal dominance, all underpinned with Satanic occultism.
The Nazis were bankrolled by Zionists from the mid 1920s, and they only became powerful because of this support. Hitler was a member of the Thule Society, which was/is a Freemason secret (Teutonic) Illuminati organization with roots going back to the (Satanic) Knights Templar. (The Iron Cross symbol comes from the Templars as does the Nazi SS “Skull and Bones”).
This ‘material dynamic’ and the close connecting factors emanating from this Satanic manifest are explained very well in the article………..Protocols: The Document That Explains Everything.
Dawkins’ publisher faces jail over ‘atheist manifesto’
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/dawkins-publisher-faces-jail-over-atheist-manifesto-761063.html
Richard Dawkins’ best-selling atheist manifesto The God Delusion was at the centre of a growing row over religious tolerance yesterday after the Turkish publishers of his book were threatened with legal action by prosecutors who accuse it of ‘insulting believers’.
Erol Karaaslan, the founder of the small publishing house Kuzey Publications, could face between six months and a year in jail for “inciting hatred and enmity” if Istanbul prosecutors decide to press charges over the book, which has sold 6000 copies in Turkey since it was published this summer.
“A reader complained, saying that he wanted the book banned and the publishers punished”, said Mr Karaaslan after talks with the Istanbul state prosecutor. Mr Karaaslan, whose company specialises in self-help books and children’s literature, has been given a few days to prepare a written statement of defence.
This is not the first time Dawkins has come up against the wrath of the Turkish authorities. Published here in the mid-1990s, his less confrontational book The Selfish Gene also faced problems, with the Islamist government then in power trying to get it banned from bookshops. The God Delusion, the fourth of Dawkins’ books to be published in Turkish, sparked controversy with its damning approach to religion and unashamed avowal of atheism. While some appreciated his frankness, many questioned the book’s relevance to Turkish readers.
“It aims to explain atheism from the perspective of Christianity”, one amateur reviewer wrote, “and I don’t think that’s of much use in a Muslim country, because Muslims are already aware of the contradictions and oddities of Christianity as it is.” Another writing on a popular blogging website was more direct: “If I were God, I’d give Dawkins a good smacking” they wrote.
Mr Karaaslan is by no means the first publisher to face investigation in Turkey, a country that has become notorious over the past two years for a slew of cases based on laws restricting freedom of expression. Nobel prize-winning novelist Orhan Pamuk and Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Dink were two of dozens of writers to be charged last year under a controversial law that makes it a crime to “insult Turkishness.” Pamuk was acquitted. Dink who was murdered this January by a 17-year ultra-nationalist – was convicted.
The fact is, analysts say, that for all that it has a secular constitution, Turkey remains a relatively conservative country. The word atheist has only recently appeared in Turkish, but “godless” still remains an insult here. “Only 2% of the people we interviewed said they didn’t believe in God”, says Ali Carkoglu, co-author of a 2006 study of religious attitudes.
“Given that we had a 2% margin of error that could mean nobody”, he added. “In any case it takes considerable courage for a Turk to admit to a stranger that they are atheists.”
In this atmosphere, writers like Richard Dawkins will invariably cause a stir. Polls done last summer showed that only 25% of Turks accepted evolutionary theory.