Guest Post - Re: Stephen Hawking "Afterlife is a fairy story"

One of my good friends emailed an online article to several of us the other day. It was an interview with Stephen Hawking, a world renowned scientist. Not surprisingly, in the article Hawking attempts to use science and logic to defy the existence of any god and therefore any afterlife. His arguments are not new, though they still get under the skin of many Christians. The amazing irony is that a man of great science, logical thought, and intelligence such as Hawking makes some very obvious logical flaws in his sweeping statements against any existence of God or afterlife. You can read the article in its entirety here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110516/us_yblog_thelookout/stephen-hawking-says-afterlife-is-a-fairy-story

In the end, without some faith, there is no belief in God. Good luck proving Him or fully comprehending Him. In fact, stating that there is not enough proof or that it is inconceivable is no proof at all. If God is beyond us—He created us—then how can we hope to tie a nice bow around who He is in our limited ability to understand? The amazing thought of a personal relationship with a big, all-knowing, perfect God is hard to accept or even grasp fully. But our inability to fully comprehend it is in no way proof for or against, contrary to Hawking’s logic. If God's “ways are higher” and His “thoughts are not your thoughts" (Isaiah 55:8-9), then how could we expect to be able to fully comprehend Him? So that argument does nothing. Hawking or others might reply, “Well, how convenient. Explaining the impossible with an ‘incomprehensible God’ cop-out.” That response sounds clever and logical, but given what God claims to be and what we know Him to be (see Isaiah reference above), it is an irrelevant argument. I would challenge Hawking to choose something more solid and substantial. (Of course, he would probably come up with something, however inadequate, as there is no end to this banter back and forth from either side…but if we have a hard time proving God with human logic, we will certainly have a harder time proving His non-existence…we get smug in our logic, but when you break it down, we haven’t proven His non-existence whatsoever. And for those of us who know Him, that is no surprise. :-)

For more thoughts on science and religion and how they fit together, see the following post: The Pursuit of Happiness – Science, Logic, and Love

One of my good friends wrote back the following reply to the Hawking article. I really enjoyed his thoughts, so I have brought it to you as this month's guest post:

These kind of articles are not unusual for our society. We have often spoken about how the media has used Christianity for an amusing punching bag whether it is in movies, TV, or radio. There are many who are so deep into scientific research, that for them matters of fact are the goal rather than matters of faith. Human history has already experienced this though: think of how many religions and beliefs in the past have been proven untrue (Mount Olympus being the easiest example). It is understandable for people to be skeptical and even Paul realized the implications if Christianity was untrue: "and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is vain, your faith is also vain." 1 Corinthians 15:14.

While I have no desire to go toe-to-toe with Stephen Hawking, there are some observations I have on this article.

"But in 2010, Hawking told Diane Sawyer that "science will win" in a battle with religion 'because it works.'"

Scientists, engineers, and others are driven by a desire to understand what appears to be not understandable. Science is something we can comprehend, test, and rely on to return the same result... most of the time. God is unknowable and far beyond us. How many times have we been told, "You're trying to put God in a box." Why does grace work? Because of God, yet we have done nothing to deserve it. To one such as Hawking, this doesn't "work", yet we praise God because of this "not working out." If it did "work", then we would be condemned.

"What could define God [is a conception of divinity] as the embodiment of the laws of nature. However, this is not what most people would think of that God," Hawking told Sawyer. "They made a human-like being with whom one can have a personal relationship. When you look at the vast size of the universe and how insignificant an accidental human life is in it, that seems most impossible."

He is more than Mother Nature and Father Time combined into one. But if our Bible is true, than we see in Genesis that God started the relationship, not Adam. Hawking is right though: we are insignificant in our own perspective of the cosmos, making God much more worthy to be praised.

"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."

And who authored and signed the bill of gravity into law? "Matter can neither be created nor destroyed," correct? Then why does anything exist at all? Hawking would argue that just because an answer has not been discovered yet does not mean there is no explanation. True, just because I do not understand that one light in the sky is a star 93 million miles away and another orbits our planet does not make it unexplainable eventually. In the vastness of the universe (infinite), if you wanted to do a statistical probability of any fraction, then our world would by chance have to happen sometime. But with all we can see around us, if spontaneous creation is true, then I will also believe in spontaneous human combustion as my brain will have exploded. Pastor Gregg said it well once, "A random chance of creation takes more faith than God's deliberate creation."

"'We should seek the greatest value of our action,' Hawking told the paper."

And what are our greatest actions of value? Praising God, loving one another, going out and telling others.

When we get together again, we should pray for the lost, those striving to find something greater than themselves, and those who do not realize the joy and hope that we share.

Amen!