God made the universe for our pleasure?

[puritan628]

Stephen Hawkings has a new book out, "The Grand Design." In an interview here, Reuters reports that Hawkings writes, "the single Sun, the lucky combination of Earth-Sun distance and solar mass, far less remarkable, and far less compelling evidence that the Earth was carefully designed just to please us human beings." [emphasis mine]

I am SOOOO very thankful that the Lord has revealed truth to me through the WCF! It is awesome, wonderful, liberating to NOT be the "center of the universe."

 

[goodnews]

Stephen Hawkings has a new book out, "The Grand Design." In an interview here, Reuters reports that Hawkings writes, "the single Sun, the lucky combination of Earth-Sun distance and solar mass, far less remarkable, and far less compelling evidence that the Earth was carefully designed just to please us human beings." [emphasis mine]

I am SOOOO very thankful that the Lord has revealed truth to me through the WCF! It is awesome, wonderful, liberating to NOT be the "center of the universe."

He actually contradicted himself in that statement, In my humble opinion. How does such a smart guy come to such an illogical conclusion. Paul was right when he said that the mind of man is at enmity against God. I'm going to drop Romans 1, Psalm 8, Psalm 14, Psalm 19, and Isaiah 40 on the discussion.

 

[JBaldwin]

Psalm 53
1 The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.”
They are corrupt, doing abominable iniquity;
there is none who does good.

2 God looks down from heaven
on the children of man
to see if there are any who understand, [2]
who seek after God.

3 They have all fallen away;
together they have become corrupt;
there is none who does good,
not even one.

4 Have those who work evil no knowledge,
who eat up my people as they eat bread,
and do not call upon God?

5 There they are, in great terror,
where there is no terror!
For God scatters the bones of him who encamps against you;
you put them to shame, for God has rejected them.

6 Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion!
When God restores the fortunes of his people,
let Jacob rejoice, let Israel be glad.

 

[Theogenes]

Revelation 4:11 (King James Version)

11Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

 

[N. Eshelman]

Now is he that new missionary TE in the New York Metro Presbytery? Does he teach Sunday School there?

 

[Grillsy]

Hawking changes his views on God (god?)

God did not create the universe, says Hawking - Yahoo! News

This is an interesting article. Would anyone care to take a stab at his theory that the creation of the universe was simply the natural consequence of the laws of physics?

 

[fredtgreco]

How does gravity create something from nothing? How does gravity come from nothing? What a fool.

 

[puritan628]

I probably didn't use the appropriate thread when I started this post here.

 

[Backwoods Presbyterian]

That makes no sense Dr. Hawking.

 

[Afterthought]

I thought he was referring to the big bounce theory of loop quantum cosmology, but it doesn't appear so. Not to mention that I thought he was a holography or brane person? Or maybe not since he described himself as a positivist.

At any rate, before even attempting to take a stab his theory I think I'll wait to hear him explain what he's talking about more thoroughly since I know science often gets garbled in the media during the quest for an exciting story.

 

[py3ak]

I probably didn't use the appropriate thread when I started this post here.

Problem solved!

 

[Reformed Baptist]

Is "the big bounce theory of loop quantum cosmology" something ladies are doing to make themselves prettier?

 

[Afterthought]

Is "the big bounce theory of loop quantum cosmology" something ladies are doing to make themselves prettier?

I certainly hope not, though there may be rumors to the contrary!

 

[Peairtach]

Quote from Grillsy

Would anyone care to take a stab at his theory that the creation of the universe was simply the natural consequence of the laws of physics?

Who created - or started using - the laws of physics and Who keeps them going?

He's just trying to get some publicity for his book and is also disappointed that he hasn't yet worked out a way in which the fundamental laws - or forces rather - of physics are interlinked - a so-called Theory of Everything. Some atheists believe/hope that it will exclude the "need" for God.

If they did/do find such a theory it would just be a further testimony to the simplicity and beauty of the way God governs nature/everything material, through His Word and by His Spirit.

 

[MW]

Would anyone care to take a stab at his theory that the creation of the universe was simply the natural consequence of the laws of physics?

A little while ago I visited a friend at the beach. He didn't see my car because I travelled with another. He asked me how I arrived. I answered, By car. Where is the car? he asked. I replied that it was down the street. How did it get there? he queried. He instinctively understood that a mechanism requires a driver.

 

[Semper Fidelis]

Would anyone care to take a stab at his theory that the creation of the universe was simply the natural consequence of the laws of physics?

A little while ago I visited a friend at the beach. He didn't see my car because I travelled with another. He asked me how I arrived. I answered, By car. Where is the car? he asked. I replied that it was down the street. How did it get there? he queried. He instinctively understood that a mechanism requires a driver.

Which only adds to the judgment of those that create clever academic narratives to suppress what they know is manifest.

 

[ClayPot]

The World Created Itself

So says Stephen Hawking in his new book. "The universe can and will create itself from nothing," he writes. It's sad that such incredibly brilliant people are so foolish; but it's not an intelligence thing--it's a spiritual thing.

Stephen Hawking: God didn't create universe - CNN.com

 

[Philip]

It also raises huge questions on the nature of time. We know that time is quantifiable and measurable, so by that token it cannot be infinite.

It's Hilbert's infinite hotel: if you tore down half of the rooms, you would still be left with as many as you started with. Saying that time is infinite and that the universe created itself raises too many problems, so according to Occam's razor, since divine causality is simpler and does not create such issues, it is a better theory.

 

[BlackCalvinist]

Psalm 14:1

 

[jwright82]

His, and anyone else who argues for this, argument is circuler in nature it seems to me. The laws of physics had to exist before they existed to have any affect at all. But I have not read the book so I don't want to make any solid arguments before I have read his more detailed analysis and argument. This whole point of view though seems from a Dooyeweerdian perspective to be idolatry on two fronts.

It makes physics the ultimate reference point for judging all other theoretical disciplines, here it is religion. What can physics actually tell us about religion? Nothing, it can tell us about physics and that is it. Every sphere of experience is no more ultimate than anyother and none can be given a transcendent place above all creation (only God is transcendnet in His viewpoint not finite human understanding), which is exactly what Hawkings and Dawkins are trying to do with science in general. It also is what Dooyeweerd would call an immanetistic philosophy because it ascribes attributes of God to creation and science. Most notably is aseity. God needs nothing outside His own being for His existance but here we are being told that the universe now needs nothing outside itself to exist, this is making the attributes of God to belong to something other than God, which is idolatry. I like to keep these analysis of general worldviews in mind, here it is a materialism, when criticizing them because it puts it all into focus (you can see the big picture).

 

[jayce475]

God didn't create the universe: Hawking - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

The ABC version mentions "He also warned in a recent television series that mankind should avoid contact with aliens at all costs, as the consequences could be devastating." Oh my, that tickles me so so much.

 

[3John2]

How does gravity create something from nothing? How does gravity come from nothing? What a fool.

Perhaps I'm out of my league here but doesn't gravity REQUIRE mass? If so where did the mass originate from in the first place?

 

[Zenas]

God didn't create the universe: Hawking - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

The ABC version mentions "He also warned in a recent television series that mankind should avoid contact with aliens at all costs, as the consequences could be devastating." Oh my, that tickles me so so much.

Honestly though, presuming the existence of an alien race with technology sufficient to reach or communicate with us; it's a pretty big leap of faith to presuppose that they are benevolent. I mean, America is supposedly "benevolent" and we invade smaller, weaker entities regularly.

 

[Peairtach]

Dr Hawking takes a hissy fit and likes to throw his rattle out of his pram at God, when God doesn't reveal to him the secrets of the Universe, like the Q of how the electromagnetic force, gravity and the strong and weak nuclear forces are related.

No doubt if he came up with the correct theory on this, which would result in a very important book or two, Dr Hawking would start saying nice things about God again.

It's all very childish. He's worried that he's going to die before he comes up with the so-called "Theory of Everything", he's fed up with God for not letting him in on the secrets, so he's taking it out on God by saying that He doesn't exist, while at the same time drawing attention to the much less important book he's written, which tells physicists nothing new.

"He also warned in a recent television series that mankind should avoid contact with aliens at all costs, as the consequences could be devastating."

Is that the consequences for the aliens; we would teach them our evil ways.