Stephen Hawking on The Grand Design book: God did not create the universe

By on Sep 3, 2010 in Weird • 3 comments



World-famous physicist Stephen Hawking argues in his new book The Grand Design that ‘God did not create the universe’.

According to an excerpt published Thursday in The Times of London, Hawking mentioned in his book that “given the existence of gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing,”

“Spontaneous creation is the reason why there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist,” he writes in the excerpt.

“It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper [fuse] and set the universe going,” he writes.

The Grand Design, as the title suggests, is an attempt of Hawking to answer “the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything,” he writes, quoting Douglas Adams‘ cult science fiction romp, “The Hitch-hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.”

His answer is “M-theory,” which, Hawking says, speculates 11 space-time dimensions, “vibrating strings, … point particles, two-dimensional membranes, three-dimensional blobs and other objects that are more difficult to picture and occupy even more dimensions of space.” This is an excerpt from the introduction to the book.

However, Hawking said he understands the feeling of the great English scientist Sir Isaac Newton that God did “create” and “conserve” order in the universe.

Citing the 1992 discovery of a planet orbiting a star other than our Sun, he said.

“That makes the coincidences of our planetary conditions – the single Sun, the lucky combination of Earth-Sun distance and solar mass – far less remarkable, and far less compelling as evidence that the Earth was carefully designed just to please us human beings.”

But the British most famous physicist argues that if there are untold numbers of planets in the galaxy, it’s less remarkable that there is one with conditions for human life.

And, indeed, he argues, any form of intelligent life that evolves anywhere will automatically find that it lives somewhere suitable for it.

From there, he introduces the idea of multiple universes, which states that if there are many universes, one will have laws of physics like ours. And in such a universe, something not only can, but must, arise from nothing.

Stephen Hawking concludes that the Big Bang was an inevitable consequence of the laws of physics; and that ‘there’s no need for God to explain it.

The Grand Design was co-written by US physicist Leonard Mlodinow and will be published early this month in US and UK.



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  1. jmaq on Sep 9, 2010, 9:41:54 pm:

    Can Hawking explain spontaneous generation or restoration of generative diseases or neuromuscular diseases can be cured by natural generation of things?

  2. Ron Krumpos on Sep 11, 2010, 3:02:26 am:

    In “The Grand Design” Hawking says that we are somewhat like goldfish in a curved fishbowl. Our perceptions are limited and warped by the kind of lenses we see through,“the interpretive structure of our human brains.” Albert Einstein rejected this subjective approach, common to much of quantum mechanics, but did admit that our view of reality is distorted.

    Einstein’s Special Theory of Relativity has the surprising consequences that “the same event, when viewed from inertial systems in motion with respect to each other, will seem to occur at different times, bodies will measure out at different lengths, and clocks will run at different speeds.” Light does travel in a curve, due to the gravity of matter, thereby distorting views from each perspective in this Universe.

    Similarly, mystics’ experience in divine oneness, which might be considered the same eternal event, viewed from various historical, cultural and personal perspectives, have occurred with different frequencies, degrees of realization and durations. This might help to explain the diversity in the expressions or reports of that spiritual awareness. What is seen is the same; it is the seeing which differs.

    In some sciences, all existence is described as matter or energy. In some of mysticism, only consciousness exists. Dark matter is 25%, and dark energy about 70%, of the critical density of this Universe.* Divine essence, also not visible, emanates and
    sustains universal matter (mass/energy: visible/dark) and cosmic consciousness (f(x) raised to its greatest power). During suprarational consciousness, and beyond, mystics share in that essence to varying extents.

    *These widely accepted theories might imply that science can now study only 5% of this Universe.

  3. Al on Nov 13, 2010, 1:00:10 am:

    Hawkings couldn’t carry Einstein’s jock strap even if he wasn’t disabled.