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Hawking 'defending God'?

posted 17 years ago by Inkan1969
8 replies | jump to latest

Another issue I had. When Hawking first discussed the Big Bang with Hoyle, Hoyle then went off on a tirade about how Big Bang theory was the same as the belief in God. He said the Pope was a Big Bang theorist among other things. Of course, Big Bang theory is the theory that currently has the most support from scientific evidence, and this movie was about Hawking's quest to argue for Big Bang Theory in his dissertation.

But because Hoyle linked Big Bang theory with religion the ascention of that theory then comes off like a triumph of religion over athiesm in the movie. Hawking himself even comes off like a defender of God, pitted against Hoyle whose Steady State Theory pushes out God. Did the movie leave that impression with anybody else? If so, the movie would seem to be misrepresenting Big Bang theory. That theory was not meant to endorse any traditional religious viewpoint ( I myself am Catholic for my own reasons, but I never let that affect my big bang research work. ). Hawking himself, I believe, is not a Christian and might not believe in God in the first place. So this film might be misleading.

[–] baeroplane 17 years ago

I agree.

[–] blacktalons-1 17 years ago

That is the exact impression I got from it. And you're right, that does make it seem as though hawking is a defender of God -- I am not sure if he is or not. It could be possible that he believes in a God (or creator), but in a very different way that most do -- Definitely none of the popular beliefs of what this creator could be.

Personally, I enjoyed the way how they mingled religion with science, I feel it is something that never should have been separated -- It seemed to go well with the story.

[–] michaelmarks2 17 years ago

Hawking is an agnostic, believing that knowledge of God is transcendent, i.e., not discernable by science either way. He does not have the vehement attitude Hoyle, Dawkins, Gould and some other scientists have had, but he does not support the notion of God's existence either. He focuses on the science, pauses to reflect on the metaphysical only when he knows the reader/listner may be drawing connections, and then moves back on to science. Regarding the origin of the universe, he would not say it implies a creator or intelligent design, but would say there are some laws of a different nature of physics that apply there, but those are possibly transcendent as well.

[–] Ibeechu 17 years ago

Whenever you hear Albert Einstein or Stephen Hawking talk about "God" (A famous example of Einstein is when he said, "God does not play dice."), they are actually taking about nature in the universe. Einstein admitted that he doesn't believe, nor has he ever claimed to believe in a personal god. It's just a quicker way of saying, "all of the underlying laws of physics in the universe".

[–] wallw 16 years ago

I got more of an impression that he was allowing for room for the possibility of god, not endorsing that particular theory.

[–] mimosveta 12 years ago

I totally didn't get that impression, I thought that comparison to god was there only to further discredit Hoyle as a silly old goose

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S. A. F. E. T. Y.

[–] Mr_Jim 11 years ago

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/7979211/Has-Stephen-Hawking-e nded-the-God-debate.html

More like Spinoza i would presume.

[–] Neuronhead 9 years ago

I didn't get the impression that God was in any way a motivating factor in anything that Hawking did. But I did think they danced vaguely around what his beliefs were.

He said Jane was "in good company" when she explained her belief in God in terms of feelings, Hoyle's opinions on why The Big Bang was even considered, Jane and his discussion about Galileo, and at the end when Hawking looks up and says, to no one, "can you hear me?"

You can interpret those any way you like, really. So I think they were there to address religion without really taking a position, and without pissing anyone off.

I agree with this. Any religious aspect would have taken away from the main theme of the film, which was Hawking's relationship with time.

I choose to believe what I was programmed to believe