Stephen Hawking says afterlife is a fairy story

**Monseratto** · May 17th, 2011 08:04 AM

No evidence that a person's spirit or soul continues to exist after death. The promise of eternal life or 16 virgins is a hoax...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_theloo...-a-fairy-story

Mon May 16, 11:07 am ET
By Liz Goodwin

Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking recently explained his belief that there is no God and that humans should therefore seek to live the most valuable lives they can while on Earth.

Guardian writer Ian Sample asked Hawking if he feared death in a story published yesterday. This was his response:

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.

Hawking's 1988 book "A Brief History of Time" sold 9 million copies, and in it Hawking referenced God metaphorically as the force that could fully explain the creation of the universe.

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

"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."

Hawking's latest book, "The Grand Design," challenged Isaac Newton's theory that the solar system could not have been created without God. "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. It is not necessary to invoke God to ... set the Universe going," he writes.

Hawking was diagnosed with the degenerative Lou Gehrig's disease at the age of 21. He lost his power of speech and for decades has talked through an electronic speech synthesizer. The device has allowed him to continue his research and attain a top Cambridge research post, which was previously held by Newton. His most famous theory explains how black holes emit radiation, according to The Guardian.

So if everyone is destined to power-down like computers at the end of their lives, what should humans do to lend meaning to their experience?

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

(Hawking in China in 2006: Elizabeth Dalziel/AP)

**architect** · May 18th, 2011 09:14 PM

Quite ironic that despite all the empirical notes Hawking can provide pertinent to his theory on the absence of an afterlife, not one can serve as definitive evidence of his thesis. Thus for him to believe this, he ultimately has to rely on pure faith – that which he implicitly accuses religious believers of doing so, in the parallel absence of any empirical evidence of an afterlife.

**sugarkane** · May 19th, 2011 01:32 AM

Originally Posted by architect

Quite ironic that despite all the empirical notes Hawking can provide pertinent to his theory on the absence of an afterlife, not one can serve as definitive evidence of his thesis. Thus for him to believe this, he ultimately has to rely on pure faith – that which he implicitly accuses religious believers of doing so, in the parallel absence of any empirical evidence of an afterlife.

+1. Stephen Hawking is guilty of the same crime as the so called religious. Faith that science would be the answer to everything is still faith.

**niky** · May 19th, 2011 11:48 AM

It's not faith, for him... it's merely assessing available evidence and seeing no evidence for the afterlife.

Science is not the answer. Science merely defines a method of searching for answers. There's no faith in it. Either the method proves your ideas or it doesn't.

Personally, I'd like to think there is something else, despite the fact that there's no evidence for it... but the evidence against is pretty grim.

The message, though, I think is pretty clear. We shouldn't rest our hopes on the promise of an afterlife, but instead do our best to make the most of the time given to us here. In other words, strive, achieve, overcome.

**Monseratto** · May 19th, 2011 12:09 PM

Science rules...

"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."

"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."

"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. It is not necessary to invoke God to ... set the Universe going,"

**architect** · May 19th, 2011 01:04 PM

Originally Posted by niky

It's not faith, for him... it's merely assessing available evidence and seeing no evidence for the afterlife.

Science is not the answer. Science merely defines a method of searching for answers. There's no faith in it. Either the method proves your ideas or it doesn't.

Personally, I'd like to think there is something else, despite the fact that there's no evidence for it... but the evidence against is pretty grim.

The message, though, I think is pretty clear. We shouldn't rest our hopes on the promise of an afterlife, but instead do our best to make the most of the time given to us here. In other words, strive, achieve, overcome.

Hi Niky,

Hawking's scientific method requires empirical evidence to prove his theory. He does not have that. Yet he still forms a conclusion, rather he jumps to a conclusion on the basis of so-called insurmountable circumstantial evidence. If such act were committed by a less renowned scientist, we would call it a leap of faith. But Hawking being who he is, tries to get away with it. But the fact remains the same - he has not been able to prove his thesis.

Personally, I am inclined to think there is something beyond life as we know it. After all, when we consider the perfect ratio of the nautilus, or the very complexity of our human bodies, we inevitably and undeniably come to the conclusion these are most likely not random acts of physics. I can list a hundred other trivial observations which will reinforce the concept of a supreme creator yet none of which will provide definitive evidence such entity exists. So, despite the abundance of "circumstantial evidence" pointing to the existence of a Supreme Being, it is still considered a matter to faith to believe so.

Thus, whether you believe in an afterlife or not, I guess, is a matter of faith. But I totally agree with you re Hawking's message, whether intentional or not. We all have to just try to live to the fullest possible.