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Post by sadie1263 on May 16, 2011 18:31:23 GMT
Stephen Hawking: ‘There is no heaven’ By Elizabeth Tenety Theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking said in an interview published Monday in the U.K.’s Guardian newspaper that he rejects the notion of heaven. “I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark,” Hawking told the Guardian. Hawking ruffled religious feathers in 2010, when in his book, The Grand Design, he wrote: “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...” Blogger Jason Boyett wrote for On Faith at the time about the uncharitable and defensive reaction of some religious people to Hawking’s declaration that God is not ‘necessary.’ Needless to say, the mystery of the universe’s origins has long (always?) been subject to the contemplation and investigation of priests, prophets, physicists, philosophers --and existential college students. Many religious thinkers point to the ‘something out of nothing,’ ‘ ex nihilo,’ creation of the universe as evidence of a higher power. Hawking’s rejection of this notion represents, to many, a deepening divide between scientific and religious thought. (Others say that religion and science answer different questions, more here.) In Hawking’s interview with the Guardian, he “emphasized the need to fulfill our potential on Earth by making good use of our lives.” Here’s a bit more insight from the Q and A with the famed physicist: You’ve said there is no reason to invoke God to light the blue touchpaper. Is our existence all down to luck?Science predicts that many different kinds of universe will be spontaneously created out of nothing. It is a matter of chance which we are in. So here we are. What should we do?We should seek the greatest value of our action. You had a health scare and spent time in hospital in 2009. What, if anything, do you fear about death?I have lived with the prospect of an early death for the last 49 years. I’m not afraid of death, but I’m in no hurry to die. I have so much I want to do first. I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark. www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/under-god/post/stephen-hawking-there-is-no-heaven/2011/05/16/AF6hNs4G_blog.html
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Post by alanseago on May 16, 2011 19:00:40 GMT
If you wish to contemplate life after death, try to remember the billions of years before you were born. Remember anything? The human mind cannot contemplate eternity or infinity so we have to invent alternatives. I have learned to accept that, one day, I shall be switched off, never to think again. I hope that I am wrong but I shall never be coaxed into believing in the man in the sky.
Why do angels need wings?
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Post by sadie1263 on May 16, 2011 19:53:04 GMT
Things I have wondered also, Alanseago............
I have also noticed that a lot of the people that insist they know they are going to Heaven.....aren't usually people that I would want to spend eternity with........
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Post by pumpkinpie on May 17, 2011 3:51:44 GMT
I believe in Heaven- 100 percent. There's just too many small pieces in life that seem to ironically fall together. There's no way in the world, it's all nature and science. When I pray, I never feel unheard and always feel a little better, although sometimes things aren't answered the way we want or hope, but in a different way. A way that God knows might be better for us.
We all have our own crosses to bare- we all suffer. Yet there is something bigger than all of this, and all of us.
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Post by sadie1263 on May 18, 2011 20:16:50 GMT
Kirk Cameron has a bone to pick with theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking.Last week, award-winning scientist and best-selling author declared that the belief in heaven or an afterlife is a “fairy story” for people afraid of life after death. "I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail,” Hawking told the Guardian last week. “There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark." That complete rejection of the existence of God infuriated Evangelical Christian Kirk Cameron, who shot back at the world-famous scientist with his own retort—prove it! "Professor Hawking is heralded as 'the genius of Britain,' yet he believes in the scientific impossibility that nothing created everything and that life sprang from non-life." The former teen heartthrob steamed to TMZ. "Why should anyone believe Mr. Hawking's writings if he cannot provide evidence for his unscientific belief that out of nothing, everything came?” Cameron also took the opportunity to blast the late John Lennon’s agnostic hit, “Imagine.” “(Hawking) says he knows there is no Heaven. John Lennon wasn't sure. He said to pretend there's no Heaven. That's easy if you try. Then he said he hoped that someday we would join him. Such wishful thinking reveals John and Stephen's religious beliefs, not good science." Read more: entertainment.blogs.foxnews.com/2011/05/18/kirk-cameron-slams-stephen-hawkings-claims-that-there-is-no-heaven/#ixzz1MjlHXOtb
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Post by DAS (formerly BushAdmirer) on May 20, 2011 22:57:52 GMT
I'm convinced that our world is too organized and logical to have happened by accident.
Is there a god (or was there a god)? I suspect there had to be some kind of very sophisticated intelligence behind the creation of our world. Accidental evolution just doesn't seem to get us to this juncture.
Q. Do I know the details? A. No Q. Does anyone on Planet Earth know the details? A. No Q. Do any of the organized religions such as Christianity, Islam, Hindu, Judaism, Mormon, Buddhist, etc. have even the slightest clue? A. Absolutely not. They're totally in the dark. They have no valid answers. Jesus was not the son of god. Muhammad was no messenger. Organized religion is 110% B.S.
Bottom line is that I think the origins of our world are unknowable at this time. We're kind of like the people living in Rome in the year 100 AD trying to understand automobiles and computers. They just didn't have the basis for understanding. Maybe that will change in the future.
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Post by Wonder Woman on May 24, 2011 4:18:51 GMT
Hello ya'll! As a child I often dreamed of being in a particular place and time (not of the now). I'm an adult at a hanging. I've also always had great difficulty leaving the 'u' out of words (colour, humour, etc) like we do here in the USA. (On another site, I was accused of being a 'Euroweenie' pretending to be American ~ LOL).... I'm convinced that I lived in England in another life AND that I attended an execution. I don't consider that 'heaven' necessarily is (or more precisely, that it is that neat little place in the sky. Ditto Hell. But, I'm convinced there is life after death. Far too many people have been visited by loved ones (and not so loved) after their deaths (myself included)for me not to accept life on this ball isn't 'it'. ... God? I dunno. Anywhoo....... there's a penny worth.
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Post by Big Lin on May 24, 2011 15:30:05 GMT
I don't know if heaven is some sort of physical place.
I think of it more as a state of mind or state of being.
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Post by Synonym on May 24, 2011 19:06:20 GMT
That Stephen Hawking is expert in maths and philosophy does not make him an expert outside of these fields. His unsupported opinion that there is no heaven carries as much weight as his opinion on German art (assuming that he is not an expert in German art, of course).
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