Stephen Hawking's view on god and death

Hawkings was recently interviewed where he made the following statements:

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.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelo...ephen-hawking-says-afterlife-is-a-fairy-story

He explained that there is no God and humans should therefore seek to live the most valuable lives they can while on Earth.

Also:

A study using census data from nine countries shows that religion there is set for extinction, say researchers. The countries are Australia, Austria, Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand and Switzerland.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-12811197

I wonder about this notion that belief in god and religion is really dwindling and science will 'win'. If mainstream religion is on the verge of extinction in the West the belief in god is not. New age type belief systems come to the forefront, not to mention western buddhists and even the fringe beliefs such as Scientology which doesn't invoke god but advances equally ridiculous notions as the cloud man. Perhaps people are not guided by religion as they were in the past, this is true in many parts of the West. I for example don't really know too many people who are really religious or think or talk about god, most of them are agnostic or atheist or hold some vague notion of 'universal divinity'.

In the US belief in god and religion are still the norm and I would venture to say the accepted norm worldwide whereas atheism or even agnosticism isn't.

So where is the evidence that science will 'win'? Winning I assume refers to stamping out widely held myths.

 

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Most ancient religions are now dead, like most species. If the conditions that led to their formation (irrationality, lack of alternative naturalistic theories) are absent, then perhaps no new religions will form.

 

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Do you really see evidence that the world is really becoming more rational?

Hmmm....maybe it is.

 

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Um,

If the US persists in its outdated unsupportable beliefs they will end up being regarded (much as the tendency is here already because of this) as quaint folk who aren't quite right in the head.

 

By what standards? Most of the world is inhabited with folk who are not quite right in the head. I'm just wondering if perhaps there are not more non-believers than we can identify and perhaps the religious folk are just louder.

 

I see religions in their death throws, the only places where they are growing is where people are in the most despair and have the least education. That is to be expected. The uneducated and poor are generally superstitious.

Conversely, it is no accident that--no matter where you go on earth--the people with the most education tend to be the least religious.

~String

 

I recently filled in the Uk census. Under religion I wrote: Jedi.
I did this after learning quite a few thousand people did the same on the last census. Hopefully more will do it this time 'round

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Wishful thinking. Sadly, there are many intelligent poeple who recognise the money to be made in manipulation. I have a pretty sound theory of god, but am scared to share it as it may be used in this way by some cult leader's coercions.

P.S. Are you shagging a goat?

 

Would be curious to know the North/South split.

 

The South is our deep dark family secret of… well, you wouldn't really want to know.

 

My grandfather is Texas born. A little Cherokee injin runs through our veins. I generally think that is why the mushrooms affected me so. The injin loves 'em.

No talk of religious affiliations though.

 

W.B. Yeats:

IX. The Four Ages of Man

He with body waged a fight,
But body won; it walks upright.

Then he struggled with the heart;
Innocence and peace depart.

Then he struggled with the mind;
His proud heart he left behind.

Now his wars on God begin;
At stroke of midnight God shall win.

 

Good thing you don't have a little African in you, you would be strongly affected by fried chicken and watermelon.

Spoiler

Now doesn't that sound racist?

 

Not at all. Nothing wrong with an observation. My blood is so mixed I wouldn't be surprised to have some african blood a few gens back. I can trace back to the Kings of Scotland.

 

You're related to Forest Whitaker?

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A bit like the Irish, you mean?

 

Hawking wrote:

"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."

I don't agree with that statement- I think he is overreaching.

 

I see how you came to that conclusion, but there are obvious differences.
For one thing the Irish produce Guinness.

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Overreaching how?

 

It's not like there is any-thing else to make existence of.